The soldier ultimately agreed to assist Russia, in keeping with the Safety Service of Ukraine, or SBU. Appearing on directions from his Russian handler, the SBU stated in a press launch, the soldier deliberate so as to add a toxic substance to the water provide of the laundry advanced utilized by senior officers.
The company stated it had thwarted the soldier’s plot to poison the Ukrainian navy command within the southeastern Zaporizhzhia area after the Russians had threatened his household. He has been charged with treason and faces life imprisonment.
The incident sheds gentle on a tactic Russia’s safety providers are utilizing to recruit Ukrainians.
Moscow’s preliminary plan was to have its brokers infiltrate the best ranges of Ukrainian society forward of its invasion after which seize energy from inside. However most of these individuals have been both weeded out by Ukrainian regulation enforcement or fled on their very own within the first months after Russia’s invasion.
Now, greater than two years into the struggle, there are fewer Ukrainians with pro-Russian sympathies, particularly in positions of affect, keen to assist Moscow.
Movies, paperwork and textual content message exchanges offered to The Washington Submit by SBU officers and Ukrainians contacted by people claiming to characterize Russia’s particular providers revealed that in lots of instances the Russians used extortion to power Ukrainians to work for them — by threatening relations who nonetheless stay underneath Russian occupation or who’ve been taken prisoner.
The Submit is just not totally figuring out the SBU officers or the opposite people as a result of publishing their names might put them in peril, and would additionally danger the security of relations in Russian captivity or dwelling underneath Russian occupation.
Whereas some Ukrainians have entry to prime officers and helpful data, such because the soldier in Zaporizhzhia, many are simply on a regular basis individuals with no coaching or expertise in espionage. Directions from the Russian handlers have included reporting on the motion of navy gear or confirming {that a} missile struck its goal.
In a struggle during which the battle strains have moved little prior to now yr, any kernel of knowledge can present an edge.
The Ukrainian soldier — the SBU has not disclosed his id — communicated with somebody from the Russian Federal Safety Service, or FSB, by way of the Telegram encrypted messaging app. In textual content messages that the SBU has made public, the FSB agent requested the soldier to offer data on his navy unit — what its duties have been, who was a part of the command construction and pictures of their positions.
“We don’t ask the kind of data we don’t should know,” the soldier replied in a single message. “It may well trigger suspicion.”
“You don’t should ask something,” the FSB handler replied. “Take pictures of the materiel your unit has.”
Extortion isn’t a brand new methodology utilized by Russian safety providers, however it has develop into extra widespread as Russia has occupied roughly 20 % of Ukraine and brought 1000’s of prisoners. SBU officers stated the Russians will ship pictures and movies to relations of prisoners of struggle, typically exhibiting the prisoner with a gun to their head.
One sufferer of such threats was Yana, whose mom was a Ukrainian border guard within the northeast Kharkiv area when Russia invaded. The mom was instantly taken prisoner, however months later, Yana obtained unusual messages from her mom’s cellphone. At first, the individual on the opposite finish was well mannered, Yana stated, promising that her mom wouldn’t be harmed. However in alternate they needed data, and requested if Yana noticed any navy gear in her Kharkiv neighborhood.
The tone modified after Yana refused to reply.
“The Russians are offended,” one message stated. “There’s one girl, many males,” one other stated.
Yana then obtained a name from her mom. She advised Yana that she wanted to reply to the messages.
“She stated her life relied on it,” Yana stated.
Yana’s mom was ultimately launched and not lives underneath Russian occupation after Ukraine recaptured many of the Kharkiv area in September 2022.
In different instances, nevertheless, the Russians took Ukrainian prisoners with them as they retreated. One was an aged man. Months after he was taken captive, his son obtained a Telegram message from an unknown quantity with an image of the outdated man. The sender deleted the message seconds later. The Submit is just not figuring out the son as a result of his father stays a Russian prisoner.
“He appeared so skinny, like he’d been in a focus camp,” he stated. “The subsequent message was, ‘If you would like your father to stay, you’ll work for us.’”
The son stalled, asking for extra time to assume. However the SBU caught wind of what the Russians have been making an attempt and contacted the person earlier than he might move any data, a counterintelligence official stated. Now, the SBU screens the son’s communications with the Russians and directs his replies so it looks as if he’s cooperating.
Had the SBU not intervened, the son stated, he would have completed what the Russians requested. He lives in concern now, frightened that he’s being watched and that the Russians will discover out that he spoke to Ukrainian regulation enforcement.
“It was all a shock,” he stated. “I didn’t know what to inform them in order that they wouldn’t harm him.”
Even when they’re reacting to brutal extortion, Ukrainians who comply with spy for Russia face harsh jail time.
An SBU counterintelligence officer who has investigated such instances stated he “feels sorry” for individuals whose relations are threatened, however stated they need to contact the authorities as quickly as Russian particular providers make contact, “to make it unattainable or decrease the harm from the barbaric actions” of the Russians.
In that case, they are going to be handled as victims, not traitors. “If an individual doesn’t act on this method, she or he ought to perceive that his actions are topic to prison legal responsibility,” the officer stated.
Regardless of Russia’s assaults on peaceable Ukrainian cities, some Ukrainians don’t have to be pressured to betray their nation. Dmytro Logvinov, 60, had lengthy been a “Russophile,” his father stated, regardless of having been born and dwelling in Kharkiv. In 2009, he even grew to become a Russian citizen.
When the invasion began, Logvinov contacted a cousin, a former Russian navy officer in Belgorod, simply throughout the border, and supplied to assist the invaders. The cousin ultimately linked him to “Maksim,” who grew to become Dmytro’s FSB handler. At one level, Dmytro despatched Maksim a selfie video speaking in regards to the great climate in Kharkiv as a constructing burned within the background from a missile strike — affirmation for the Russians that their goal had been hit.
One other time, Dmytro, who labored as a safety guard, stated foreigners have been dwelling in a Kharkiv resort, making the positioning a goal.
Dmytro was arrested by the SBU shortly after that. Outdoors a courthouse in Kharkiv the place Dmytro was on trial for treason, his father, Eduard Logvinov, dialed a quantity for Maksim, the handler. He didn’t choose up.
An SBU counterintelligence official had offered the quantity. “Maksim’s” actual title was Andrei Salitsev, in keeping with the SBU, which additionally offered The Submit a replica of the faux passport with a distinct surname that the SBU stated he used. The FSB didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Salitsev had assured Dmytro that Russia would shield him even when he was caught, Eduard Logvinov stated. However after Dmytro’s arrest, the handler stopped answering.
The SBU officer gave Eduard a quantity for Salitsev’s mom and inspired him to name. Possibly she might move a message to her son, the officer stated. She picked up.
“His solely method out now could be if Russia tries to do a prisoner alternate for him,” Eduard advised the lady. “He was engaged on behalf of Russia, and he was involved along with your son as his agent. Are you able to inform your son to assist transfer this course of alongside from the Russian facet?”
“What’s Andrei’s final title?” Eduard requested the lady.
“I received’t inform you that,” she answered. “He will get offended with me — he says I shouldn’t inform that to individuals.”
“Is it Salitsev?” Eduard requested.
“Properly, sure,” she stated.
He’s in “a distinct nation,” she stated, including she has barely had contact with him for the previous six months.
Lower than every week after the decision, Dmytro was sentenced to fifteen years for treason.
“After these persons are arrested, they mainly neglect about them,” stated the SBU officer, who spoke on the situation of anonymity in line with safety service protocols. “The Russians simply transfer on to on the lookout for another person.”
