UKRAINE, KHARKIV, Sep 18 — The Security Service (SBU) detained a Kharkiv resident who was allegedly an agent of Russian military intelligence. According to their data, the man directed Russian missile and bomb attacks on bases where Ukrainian troops participating in combat on the Kharkiv axis were located in the city, said SBU spokesman Vladyslav Abdula. 

Since the start of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, more than 1,000 people in the Kharkiv Oblast have received a notice of suspicion in proceedings over treason, collaboration, and dissemination of information about the movement of the Armed Forces.

 Vladyslav Abdula said that the priority targets of the Russian Federation were the temporary bases of Ukrainian troops participating in the combat in the Kharkiv direction. 

According to SBU, the Russian secret service remotely recruited a 42-year-old unemployed man from Kharkiv to launch glide bombs and missile weapons at the locations of the Defense Forces.

Abdula says that the man came to the Russians’ attention through his pro-Kremlin posts on Telegram channels. There, a staff member of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (GRU) contacted him and offered to collaborate.

SBU reports that the man regularly walked around the city and covertly recorded the Defense Forces’ locations. Then, he marked the coordinates on Google Maps and sent them to his Russian supervisor via messenger.

According to Vladyslav Abdula, law enforcement officers exposed the man at the beginning of his work, so he did not have time to harm Ukrainian troops. During the search at his home, the SBU seized a cell phone that he allegedly used to take pictures of military facilities and communicate with the Russians.

The SBU gave the man a notice of suspicion and detained him to be held without bail. He faces life imprisonment and confiscation of property if found guilty.

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