Resident of Cherkasy Oblast sold information about Ukrainian forces to Russia – photo

The Security Service of Ukraine has detained a resident of Cherkasy Oblast who was leaking intelligence data on strategic facilities in the oblast to the Russians in exchange for money.

Source: Security Service of Ukraine; Cherkasy Oblast Prosecutor's Office; Ukrainska Pravda with reference to a law enforcement source

Details: The Cherkasy Oblast Prosecutor's Office reported that the spy is a 45-year-old Luhansk resident who moved to Cherkasy Oblast after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. The Security Service clarified that he relocated in April 2022. A Ukrainska Pravda source said that the man in question is Serhii Zhadanov, born in 1978. 

According to the investigation, he began communicating with a representative of the Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces while living there, in Cherkasy Oblast. The Russians recruited him through his acquaintance, a pro-Russian militant in occupied Luhansk Oblast.

In January and February 2024, he sent photos and intelligence data on the locations of Ukrainian troops, institutions and organisations of the defence industry, and critical infrastructure facilities in Cherkasy Oblast via the Telegram messenger.

The Security Service reported that his main task was to identify railway junctions serving trains involved in the transfer of military equipment to the front line. Also, as the Security Service said, the occupiers hoped to get from their agent the exact coordinates of weapon and ammunition caches. In addition, the Russians were particularly interested in the locations of military hospitals where wounded members of the Defence Forces were being treated.

The Security Service emphasised that the Russians intended to use this information to plan missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian facilities.

Through these methods, the Russians hoped to "cut off" the supply of weapons and ammunition to the front line, as well as to inflict damage on locations with the greatest concentration of Ukrainian troops.

The prosecutor's office reported that the man received US$50-100 for each piece of information.

The Security Service said it had informed the command of the Defence Forces to make a special effort to protect the units whose locations had been divulged, and detained the man.

During the searches of his apartment, a mobile phone bearing evidence of correspondence with the Russian intelligence service and a bank card to which funds were "transferred" were seized.

The Security Service served him with a notice of suspicion under Part 2 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (high treason committed under martial law).

The man is in custody and faces the possibility of life imprisonment.

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