A senior official at Ukraine’s security service has been caught passing information to Russia and now faces charges of high treason, authorities revealed.
“We practically had to live alongside him to gather evidence,” SBU chief Vasyl Malyuk stated in comments shared with POLITICO. “Now, he will stand trial for high treason.”
If convicted, the official—who had led the SBU’s anti-terrorist center since 2016—could be sentenced to life in prison.
According to the SBU, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) recruited him in 2018. He remained a dormant agent until December 2024 when Russian operatives reactivated him. However, by then, he was already under surveillance, the SBU said in a statement released Wednesday.
Investigators say his Russian handlers were former Ukrainian officials who had cracked down on the pro-Western Euromaidan protests in 2013-14 before fleeing to Moscow.
“We are continuing to root out traitors within our ranks, and this process will go on,” Malyuk said, emphasizing that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had been kept informed throughout the counterintelligence operation.
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