The SSU collected evidence against another three traitors who fought against the Defence Forces on the southern front.

In 2023, the criminals voluntarily joined the ranks of the occupation group ‘Storm’ of the Southern Military District of the aggressor country.

They were directly involved in the bloody assaults on the defensive positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Zaporizhzhia.

Ukrainian defenders captured all three suspects during battles near Robotyno in December last year and February this year.

After the unit destraction, one of the militants hid in the craters on the battlefield for three days until he was detained by the Defence Forces.

Following the investigation and data from the SSU military counterintelligence, the traitor was a resident of the temporarily occupied Crimea.

While serving a ‘sentence’ in a russian prison for theft, at the end of 2023 he signed a contract with the russian ministry of defence and thus received an ‘early release’ from the colony.

Then he was immediately assigned to the 5th Storm-V Battalion of the 42nd Motorised Infantry Division of the russian armed forces.

After short training at the training grounds in the temporarily occupied Crimea, the militant was transferred to the Zaporizhzhya direction to take part in almost continuous assaults on the frontline positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Another traitor is a resident of Sevastopol. In October 2023, he joined the Storm-Z battalion of the 56th air assault regiment of the russian army.

As a rifleman, he first set up russian firing positions near the village of Verbove, and later fired at Ukrainian army strongholds in the area.

The third suspect was a resident of the Dzhankoy district of Crimea. In the autumn of 2023, the perpetrator was ‘mobilised’ to an airborne assault unit of the russian armed forces.

After combat training at one of the peninsula's training grounds, he was redeployed to the front line near Robotyno.

The SSU investigators have served all three detainees a notice of suspicion under Article 111-2 of the CCU (high treason committed under martial law).

The criminal actions of the recidivist militant from the occupation ‘Storm-V’ are additionally qualified under Article 111.1-7 of the CCU (collaboration).

The traitors are currently in custody. They face life imprisonment.

The operation was carried out by the SSU Office in Poltava and Zaporizzhya regions under the procedural supervision of the regional Prosecutor's Offices.