Military CI of the SBU exposed and documented another attempts of recruiting Ukrainian Navy men.

The SBU officers identified and documented the facts, that a high-ranking officer of the Ukrainian Naval Forces maintains constant contacts with the acting personnel of the Russian FSB. Among them, in particular, traitors, former SBU serviceman Andrii Haponenko, Petro Zyma, Dmytro Pylypchenko, who in 2014 during the annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea moved to the side of the enemy.

In March 2014, Haponenko and Pylypchenko, performing the task of the Russian special service, proposed him switch to the service of the hostile Armed Forces and assist the Russians in the acquisition of the Naval Academy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Sevastopol. The officer refused this ‘offer’. Having arrived on mainland of Ukraine, he was appointed to the position of Deputy Commander of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces.

The serviceman has access to sensitive information of a particularly important nature in the defense field, but even acknowledging that he is a person of Russian intelligence interest, he continued to keep in touch with Haponenko, Zyma and Pylypchenko. He met with them in temporarily annexed Crimea and Sevastopol, where the military systematically visited relatives as well as contacted with them via mobile connection.

During these contacts, representatives of the Russian FSB received the information from the high-ranking official about the morale of Ukrainian Naval men, the level of their financial and material support, as well as about specific officials of the Command of Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

As a result of the measures taken by the military counterintelligence of the SBU, the high-ranking serviceman of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was not allowed to commit a particularly serious crime and prevented potential negative consequences for national security.

The issue of revoking the admission of a state secret to the suspect and his dismissal from military service is being considered.