Group of women managed by Ukrainian in Russia worked for FSB and Wagner in Donetsk Oblast

The counterintelligence department of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) has neutralised a Russian agent network in Hirnyk, Donetsk Oblast, which consisted of local women who worked simultaneously for the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) and Wagner group mercenaries.

Source: Security Service of Ukraine, Donetsk Oblast Prosecutor's Office

Details: Three citizens of Ukraine and a citizen of Russia have been exposed for treason and unauthorised dissemination of information about the deployment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

All four Russian agents are residents of Pokrovsk district. Three of them have been arrested (including a Russian woman), and the fourth is in the Russian Federation.

The SSU states the women were recruited by the occupiers even before 24 February 2022 and were in "standby mode".

The prosecutor's office reported that a citizen of Ukraine, who lived in the city of Hirnyk, Donetsk Oblast before the start of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, and then moved to the occupying state, agreed to cooperate with her former compatriot, a member of the Wagner Group, in August 2022.

She promised the Wagner fighter and a representative of the Russian FSB to collect intelligence for the occupiers. The woman involved three acquaintances who were residents of Hirnyk for this purpose, one of whom has Russian citizenship.

For over a year, the trio collected and sent her text messages, photo and audio files, and Google Maps screenshots of targets in the Pokrovsk district where the Ukrainian military was stationed via Telegram. The women also reported on the direction of movement of Ukrainian military equipment and weapons and reported on the results of fire damage to Ukrainian positions.

Some of the occupiers’ henchmen tried to identify and "leak" to the aggressor the flight paths of Ukrainian Armed Forces combat aircraft, including attack helicopters near Avdiivka. They were also interested in the routes of movement of heavily armoured vehicles carrying Ukrainian troops from frontline areas to the front line.

The women went around the area and covertly took photos of Ukrainian targets to collect intelligence information.

A Ukrainian woman living in Russia quickly forwarded the data received to her handlers.

As a result of a multi-stage special operation, SSU officers arrested three members of the Russian intelligence service while they were gathering intelligence and identified the resident (senior) member of the hostile group who had travelled to Russia at the start of the full-scale invasion and coordinated the agents from the territory of the aggressor country.

Mobile phones used in intelligence and subversive activities for the Russian Federation were found during searches of the suspects' residences.

The Security Service of Ukraine investigators served the three detainees with notices of suspicion under Art. 28.2 of the Criminal Code (the committing of a crime by a group of persons, by a group of persons with prior conspiracy), Art. 111.2 of the Criminal Code (treason) and Art. 114-2.2-3 of the Criminal Code (distribution of information about the movement, movement or location of the Armed Forces of Ukraine or other armed formations of Ukraine).

They were remanded in custody.

It is planned that a notice of suspicion be served on the fourth person involved, who is hiding from justice in Russia.

The investigation is ongoing. The perpetrators face life imprisonment.

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