The soldier ultimately agreed to assist Russia, in accordance 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 complicated utilized by senior officers.
The company stated it had thwarted the soldier’s plot to poison the Ukrainian army 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 mild on a tactic Russia’s safety companies are utilizing to recruit Ukrainians.
Moscow’s preliminary plan was to have its brokers infiltrate the very best ranges of Ukrainian society forward of its invasion after which seize energy from inside. However most of these folks had 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, prepared to assist Moscow.
Movies, paperwork and textual content message exchanges supplied to The Washington Submit by SBU officers and Ukrainians contacted by people claiming to characterize Russia’s particular companies revealed that in lots of circumstances the Russians used extortion to drive Ukrainians to work for them — by threatening relations who nonetheless reside underneath Russian occupation or who’ve been taken prisoner.
The Submit just isn’t totally figuring out the SBU officers or the opposite people as a result of publishing their names may put them at risk, and would additionally danger the protection of relations in Russian captivity or dwelling underneath Russian occupation.
Whereas some Ukrainians have entry to high officers and precious info, such because the soldier in Zaporizhzhia, many are simply on a regular basis folks with no coaching or expertise in espionage. Directions from the Russian handlers have included reporting on the motion of army tools or confirming {that a} missile struck its goal.
In a struggle by which the battle strains have moved little previously yr, any kernel of data can present an edge.
The Ukrainian soldier — the SBU has not disclosed his identification — communicated with somebody from the Russian Federal Safety Service, or FSB, via the Telegram encrypted messaging app. In textual content messages that the SBU has made public, the FSB agent requested the soldier to supply info on his army unit — what its duties had been, who was a part of the command construction and photographs of their positions.
“We don’t ask the form of info we don’t should know,” the soldier replied in a single message. “It will possibly trigger suspicion.”
“You don’t should ask something,” the FSB handler replied. “Take photographs of the materiel your unit has.”
Extortion isn’t a brand new methodology utilized by Russian safety companies, nevertheless it has change into extra widespread as Russia has occupied roughly 20 % of Ukraine and brought 1000’s of prisoners. SBU officers stated the Russians will ship photographs 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 acquired unusual messages from her mom’s cellphone. At first, the particular person on the opposite finish was well mannered, Yana stated, promising that her mom wouldn’t be harmed. However in change they needed info, and requested if Yana noticed any army tools in her Kharkiv neighborhood.
The tone modified after Yana refused to reply.
“The Russians are offended,” one message stated. “There’s one lady, many males,” one other stated.
Yana then acquired a name from her mom. She informed Yana that she wanted to answer the messages.
“She stated her life relied on it,” Yana stated.
Yana’s mom was ultimately launched and now not lives underneath Russian occupation after Ukraine recaptured a lot of the Kharkiv area in September 2022.
In different circumstances, nonetheless, the Russians took Ukrainian prisoners with them as they retreated. One was an aged man. Months after he was taken captive, his son acquired a Telegram message from an unknown quantity with an image of the previous man. The sender deleted the message seconds later. The Submit just isn’t figuring out the son as a result of his father stays a Russian prisoner.
“He regarded so skinny, like he’d been in a focus camp,” he stated. “The following message was, ‘If you would like your father to reside, you’ll work for us.’”
The son stalled, asking for extra time to suppose. However the SBU caught wind of what the Russians had been making an attempt and contacted the person earlier than he may cross any info, a counterintelligence official stated. Now, the SBU screens the son’s communications with the Russians and directs his replies so it looks like he’s cooperating.
Had the SBU not intervened, the son stated, he would have finished what the Russians requested. He lives in worry now, apprehensive 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 circumstances stated he “feels sorry” for folks whose relations are threatened, however stated they need to contact the authorities as quickly as Russian particular companies make contact, “to make it unattainable or decrease the injury 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 should 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 turned a Russian citizen.
When the invasion began, Logvinov contacted a cousin, a former Russian army officer in Belgorod, simply throughout the border, and provided to assist the invaders. The cousin ultimately related him to “Maksim,” who turned 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 had been dwelling in a Kharkiv resort, making the location 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 supplied the quantity. “Maksim’s” actual title was Andrei Salitsev, in accordance with the SBU, which additionally supplied The Submit a duplicate of the faux passport with a special surname that the SBU stated he used. The FSB didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Salitsev had assured Dmytro that Russia would defend 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. Perhaps she may cross 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 change for him,” Eduard informed the lady. “He was engaged on behalf of Russia, and he was in touch together with your son as his agent. Are you able to inform your son to assist transfer this course of alongside from the Russian aspect?”
“What’s Andrei’s final title?” Eduard requested the lady.
“I received’t let you know that,” she answered. “He will get offended with me — he says I shouldn’t inform that to folks.”
“Is it Salitsev?” Eduard requested.
“Effectively, sure,” she stated.
He’s in “a special nation,” she stated, including she has barely had contact with him for the previous six months.
Lower than per week after the decision, Dmytro was sentenced to fifteen years for treason.
“After these persons are arrested, they mainly overlook about them,” stated the SBU officer, who spoke on the situation of anonymity in step with safety service protocols. “The Russians simply transfer on to searching for another person.”