SSU lures FSB agent from Transnistria and detains him for attempt to recruit SSU officer
As a result of a multi-stage special operation, the SSU Counterintelligence has lured an FSB agent from the territory of unrecognized Transnistria and detained him in Odesa region. He had been given an assignment – to set up an intelligence network in southern Ukraine.
To do this, the russian asset tried to recruit residents of Odesa region remotely, including local law enforcement officers.
To make the russian agent come to Ukrainian territory, the SSU Counterintelligence involved an SSU officer and created conditions for her ‘consent’ to cooperate with the enemy.
As the SSU expected, the spy came to Odesa oblast to personally recruit the ‘candidate’.
In the course of the operation, the SSU documented the suspect’s criminal actions in stages and detained him ‘red-handed’.
According to the investigation, the enemy accomplice is a citizen of Ukraine who left for Moldova in the early 90s, where participated in the war on the side of the militants of the so-called ‘PMR’ (‘Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic’).
Later, he became a sniper in a russian-controlled unit of the ‘internal troops of Transnistria’. The ‘serviceman’ was ‘promoted’ and was appointed group commander in the 17th special forces detachment ‘Edelweiss’ of russia’s interior ministry.
While in russian special forces, the militant took part in warfare in Dagestan and Chechnya.
In 2014, he arrived in Odesa to arrange mass riots for russia, for which was put on the wanted list by the Ukrainian law enforcement.
To evade justice, the man fled to the fake ‘PMR’, where in 2019 was recruited by Sergey Zatyka and Denis Marusik, officers of the local ‘ministry of state security’, to carry out the FSB’s assignments.
He received an operational name ‘Skif’, was briefed, and in 2023 began to ‘work’.
The priority was collection of intelligence on deployment and movement of Ukraine’s Defence Forces in the frontline areas in southern Ukraine.
He also planned to obtain information on activity and priorities of Ukrainian security services in the region.
SSU investigators have now served ‘Skif’ a notice of suspicion under Article 111.2 of the CCU (high treason committed under martial law). The suspect is in custody, facing life imprisonment.
Comprehensive measures are ongoing to bring to justice his FSB ‘handlers’.
The special operation was carried out by the SSU Office in Odesa region in cooperation with the SSU Main Directorate for Internal Security under the procedural supervision of the regional Prosecutor’s Office.
