A group of Russian agents who passed coordinates for missile strikes on Kyiv to the Russian special services have been uncovered by Ukraine’s SBU security service, the agency reported on Sept. 21.
The group, created by a Russian Federal Security Service officer in Rostov Oblast, consisted of four Kyiv residents.
On the instructions of their spymaster, they collected intelligence on the capital’s thermal power plants so that Russia could strike them in order to disrupt heating infrastructure during the cold season.
In addition, the offenders passed to the enemy special service the coordinates of railway junctions and locations of Ukrainian military units, in particular the National Guard.
For their criminal activity the Russian agents received UAH 5,000 ($135) for each “report”.
Three detainees were served a notice of suspicion under Art. 111 (treason under martial law), and another one — under Art. 114-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (unauthorized dissemination of information on the movement and deployment of weapons, ammunition of military units committed under martial law or a state of emergency).
This comes after the Russian military on Sept. 11 launching a missile strike on the Kharkiv thermal power plant, which resulted in several regions of Ukraine being cut off from electricity supply for some time.
Since the Russian army was defeated in Kharkiv Oblast and retreated from the region, the Kremlin has stepped up attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, in particular hitting dams in Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts, and a power station near the city of Kharkiv.