Based on the evidence collected by the Security Service of Ukraine, an FSB agent – detained in June 2025 in Kyiv – has been sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment with confiscation of property. The perpetrator set fire to military vehicles and was plotting a high-profile assassination of a senior Defence Forces official in the Ukrainian capital.

It has been established that, acting on russia’s orders, their accomplice set fire to a pick-up truck belonging to a Hero of Ukraine – the commander of a reconnaissance platoon in the Khartiia Brigade of the National Guard.

Following this, the agent was tasked with planning the physical elimination of one of the commanders of the Ukrainian armed forces, whose personal details the hitman was to receive from his russian handler.

To prepare for the assassination, the perpetrator rented a flat near a military base in Kyiv and retrieved a Makarov pistol with several loaded magazines from a cache.

The SSU detained the suspect at his temporary accommodation whilst he was preparing for the attack.

As the investigation revealed, the man came to enemy’s attention when he began posting anti-Ukrainian comments in the chat rooms of Telegram channels.

There, an officer from the FSB’s Sverdlovsk directorate approached the deserter and offered him cooperation in exchange for extraction to russia.

To move around the city covertly, the traitor took a job with a delivery service, where, posing as a courier, he scouted for vehicles to burn and then prepared for the attempted murder.

Based on evidence, the court found the accused guilty under four Articles of the CCU:

• 111.2 (high treason, committed under martial law);
• 114-1.1 (obstruction of the lawful activities of the AFU and other military formations);
• 194.2 (wilful destruction or damage to property by arson);
• 263.1 (unlawful handling of weapons, ammunition and explosive substances).

The investigation was carried out by the SSU Office in Kyiv and the Kyiv Region, in conjunction with the National Police, under the procedural supervision of the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office.