Ukraine on Tuesday said it had arrested five former and current intelligence officers it said were secretly working for Russia as part of an influential spy ring.
Kyiv said the men were caught passing information to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) about Ukrainian military sites, its defensive fortifications, personal data and strategic energy facilities.
“The security service of Ukraine neutralized a powerful agent network run by the FSB’s military counterintelligence, which was operating in Ukraine,” Ukraine’s SBU security service said in a statement Tuesday.
Ukraine’s general prosecutor said the five men — among whom is a former employee of Ukraine’s military intelligence and its foreign intelligence units, as well as a current SBU regional agent — were arrested on suspicion of treason.
“The suspects passed on intelligence about the Defense Forces and strategically important energy facilities to representatives of the aggressor state’s special services,” the general prosecutor said.
The agency released photos of the men being arrested on its social media pages, but their identities have not been disclosed to the public.
Ukraine has arrested several individuals it alleges were undercover Russian spies or for passing strategic information to Russian handlers since Moscow invaded in February 2022.