The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has detained a deacon of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC MP) and a psychotherapist. They are suspected of spying on Ukrainian military personnel in Kharkiv.
SBU reported this.
According to the investigation, the detainees are agents of the Russian special services. They say that they were trying to find out where the largest concentration of Ukrainian military personnel and equipment was. They also collected personal data of the military and tracked their routes in the city.
SBU claims that the suspected doctor used his patients, including military personnel undergoing psychological rehabilitation after the front, to do this. He involved a close acquaintance, a deacon of the local cathedral of the Kharkiv diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC).
Law enforcement officials claim that the suspected cleric covertly asked parishioners for "necessary" information. He then told the doctor, who sent the data to the Russian curator. For this, the suspect had a separate phone and SIM card, which he hid in a mailbox in the entrance of his house.
According to the SBU counterintelligence, the suspected doctor was for some time a “sleeper agent” of the Russian FSB. In the spring of 2024, the Russian special service actively involved him in actions against Ukraine. During searches, equipment with “evidence of cooperation with the FSB was found on the suspects.
The detainees are suspected of treason
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