The Supreme Court of Ukraine upheld the sentence of 12 years in prison for high treason to the organizer of Russian military intelligence agent network. The SBU CI exposed the agent in the city of Kharkiv.

In the summer of 2017, the SBU CI found and stopped the activity of a Kharkiv resident recruited by representatives of GRU. He was a scientist who collected information on technical developments within government contract in defense sphere to provide it to Russian special services.

Law enforcement officers detained the agent while trying to obtain secret information from an employee of the National Research Center “Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology”.

- Ordzhonikidze District Court of Kharkiv found a citizen of Ukraine guilty of treason.

- On November 18, 2019, the Kharkiv Administrative Court of Appeals upheld the sentence of the first instance.

- In February 2021, the Supreme Court of Ukraine also denied the cassation appeal.

A pre-trial investigation is underway against other members of the intelligence network.

To remind:

SBU officers established that the group’s curator was in Belgorod, Russia. The SBU documented that the group’s leader repeatedly went to Russia to receive tasks.

During searches of the organizer’s residence, law enforcement officers seized computer equipment and mobile phones provided by Russia for intelligence purposes. The SBU also found 14 storage mediums, including information marked as restricted. The detected e-mail addresses had encryption passwords for communication with the Russian intelligence.

SBU officers also found that a group member had the coordinates of a cache with weapons and ammunition for sabotage. Police seized two RPG-22 grenade launchers, four F-1 and RGD-2 grenades with fuses and a TNT block.