The Ukrainian security service (SBU) said it dismantled a Russian intelligence network that was operating in several Ukrainian regions.
The spy network, which was working for Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), included former and current officials of Ukraine's security services, the SBU said in a post on Telegram Tuesday.
"The Security Service has neutralized a powerful FSB military espionage network that operated in Ukraine," it said. "As the result of a multi-stage special operation, five members of the enemy group were detained in different regions."
Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda reported that the network operated in Ukraine's Odesa, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions.
"The criminals were conducting reconnaissance on locations with the highest concentration of Ukrainian personnel and equipment in frontline areas," the SBU said, according to the publication.
The network was tasked with transferring intelligence about Ukraine's military and information about "strategically important energy facilities" in Ukraine back to Russia, the SBU said.
The security services said information about the locations of Ukrainian military bases was gathered even prior to Russia's full-scale invasion of the country on February 24, 2022. After that, the network collected intelligence on "the channels for transporting foreign weapons to Ukraine.".
One of the spies "transmitted particularly sensitive information on a flash drive through smugglers from the border areas of Ukraine."
Newsweek couldn't independently confirm the SBU's claims and has contacted Russia's Foreign Ministry for comment by email.
It comes a few months after another operation by the SBU "neutralized" a Russian spy network in Ukraine's southern city of Mykolayiv following a "large-scale" special operation.
The network allegedly included 13 local residents who worked for the FSB and gathered intelligence about the locations of military bases, as well as the movements of Kyiv's troops forces in Mykolayiv.
Members of the spy network also provided information that aided Russian missile strikes on civilians and infrastructure in Mykolayiv, the SBU said last October.
"It was under their guidance that the Russian occupiers struck a high-rise building in Mykolaiv with an S-300 anti-aircraft missile system in the fall of 2022. At that time, seven civilians, including a minor child, died as a result of enemy shelling," the security service said, adding that Russian informants passed the coordinates of Ukrainian targets to the FSB through a "liaison."
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Update 2/6/24, 6:00 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information.
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Isabel van Brugen is a Newsweek Reporter based in Kuala Lumpur. Her focus is reporting on the Russia-Ukraine war. Isabel ... Read more
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