The SSU has dismantled an agent group of the russian military intelligence (‘the GRU’), which operated in Kharkiv.

The perpetrators set up caches with money and combat grenades on the outskirts of the city. In this way, they were supposed to create a ‘stash’ for other enemy agents and saboteurs for subversive activities in the region.

According to the GRU instructions, the agents made the caches mainly in forests, sending the coordinates of these sites to their russian handler via a messenger app.

The members of the network also collected intelligence on the locations of Ukraine’s Defence Forces. To do this, they walked around Kharkiv and adjacent areas, conducting additional reconnaissance on the coordinates they got from the GRU.

According to the investigation, the group consisted of two former members of the disbanded Berkut special police unit and the wife of one of them, all residents of Kharkiv.

The individuals came to the enemy’s attention because of a former Berkut officer who fled to russia before the start of the full-scale war and started working for the occupiers.

The SSU Counterintelligence uncovered the group at an early stage, documented its crimes and detained all three members in Kharkiv.

During the searches, mobile phones with evidence of cooperation with the GRU and RGD-5 combat grenades were seized from the suspects.

SSU investigators notified the detainees of suspicion under several Articles of the CCU:

• 28.2, 111.2 (high treason, committed under martial law, upon prior conspiracy);
• 263.1 (illegal handling of ammunition and explosives).

The suspects are in custody and face life imprisonment with confiscation of property.

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