The Security Service of Ukraine apprehended two agents of russia’s federal security service in Kharkiv. They are a local psychotherapist and his accomplice, a deacon of Kharkiv diocese of moscow patriarchate’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who were spying in the frontline city.

They were trying to identify the sites of large concentrations of personnel and military equipment of Ukraine’s Defence Forces.

The traitors also collected personal data of Ukrainian defenders and were monitoring their routes of movement.

To gather intelligence, the doctor used his patients, including soldiers undergoing psychological rehabilitation after performing combat missions at the front, who unwittingly disclosed some information.

He involved his close acquaintance, a deacon of the local cathedral of the UOC-MP Kharkiv diocese, in the cooperation with the FSB.

The cleric covertly elicited the ‘necessary’ information from his parishioners.

He reported what he learnt to the psychotherapist, who prepared a report and sent it to his russian handler via a messenger app.

To communicate with the enemy service, the agent used another phone and a SIM card, which he hid in the mailbox at the entrance of his house.

However, such secrecy did not help them. The SSU documented the crimes of both perpetrators and detained them at their homes.

According to the SSU Counterintelligence, the doctor had been a sleeper agent of the FSB for some time.

In the spring of 2024, the russian service ‘activated’ him to carry out sabotage in Kharkiv.

During the searches, mobile phones and computer equipment with evidence of cooperation with the aggressor state were seized.

SSU investigators notified the agents of suspicion under the Articles of the CCU:

• 28.2,111.2 (high treason, committed upon prior conspiracy, by a group, under martial law);
• 436-2.1 (justification of russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine, glorification of its participants).

The suspects are in custody without bail and face life imprisonment with confiscation of property.

The operation was carried out by the SSU Office in Kharkiv region under the procedural supervision of the regional Prosecutor’s Office.