In Poltava region, the SSU has apprehended another three accomplices of russian intelligence services who carried out information subversion against Ukraine.

One of the suspects is a former functionary of the banned party of regions. He wrote paid-for articles for the kremlin’s international mouthpieces, including the russian online publication ‘strategic culture foundation’.

According to the investigation, the man prepared dozens of publications in which he justified russia’s armed aggression and discredited Ukraine’s Defence Forces.

For secrecy, he created the hostile content under a pseudonym. He also used anonymous chats in messenger apps to communicate with the russian intelligence services.

Another notice of suspicion was served to a local resident who has already been convicted of spreading pro-kremlin propaganda but repeated the crime during his probation.

This time, the individual wrote provocative posts on his Facebook page denying the war crimes of ruscists and calling for a coup d'état in Ukraine.

The SSU’s cyber units, together with the National Police, also exposed an IT specialist in Horishni Plavni who organized a bot farm to spread kremlin narratives on the Internet.

The perpetrator registered numerous mobile numbers of Ukrainian operators, using them to create fake accounts on social media.

The enemy used these ‘accounts’ to disseminate russian content supposedly on behalf of Ukrainian citizens. So far, over 10,000 pseudo-pages created through this bot farm have been neutralized.

The detained individuals have been declared suspects under several Articles of the CCU (according to the actions each of them committed):

• 111.2 (high treason, committed under martial law);
• 361.5 (unauthorized interference in the operation of information (automated), electronic communication, information and communication systems, electronic communication networks);
• 436-2.2, 436-2.3 (justification, recognition as legitimate, denial of russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine, glorification of its participants).

The suspects are in custody and face from 8 years in prison to life imprisonment with confiscation of property.

The operations were carried out by the SSU Office in Poltava region under the procedural supervision of the regional Prosecutor’s Office.