SBU detains FSB agent caught planning espionage network in Odesa Oblast
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The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) extracted and detained red-handed a Russian FSB security service agent from the self-proclaimed “Transnistria” (the Russian-occupied part of Moldova), who was trying to remotely recruit Odesa Oblast residents, including law enforcement officers, to establish his own espionage network in southern Ukraine.
The agent was introduced to an active SBU female employee as a part of a counterintelligence operation. She agreed to cooperate and convinced the agent to come to Odesa Oblast. His crimes were meticulously documented.
The investigation revealed that the agent turned out to be a Ukrainian citizen who had gone to Moldova in the early 1990s, where he participated in the war on the side of the separatists of the self-proclaimed “Transnistria”. He later became an “internal forces” sniper controlled by Russia and was subsequently appointed to the 17th special forces "Edelweiss" group’s commander of the Russian Internal Affairs Ministry.
The agent took part in pro-Russian riots in Odesa in 2014, and fled back to “Transnistria” after Ukrainian law enforcement declared him wanted, where he was recruited, trained, and given the call sign “Skif” [Scythian]. He began his hostile missions in 2023.
Deployments and movements of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Ukrainian southern frontline areas were of particular interest to him.
The agent is currently in custody and faces possible life imprisonment under Part 2 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (treason committed during a state of war). The investigation is ongoing.
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