Serious cases of espionage are piling up in Kiev: Do these provide insights into Putin's Ukraine tactics, including SBU double agents, and how big is the network really?
Kiev – In the Ukraine, serious espionage cases are piling up in the wake of the war.
The suspicion is growing that double agents from within their own circles are operating on behalf of Vladimir Putin.
According to sources in Kiev, high-ranking traitors laid the basis for last year's Russian invasion by helping enemy forces capture the southern city of Kherson and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the north.
Ukraine therefore wants to take tougher action.
Ukraine Exposes More and More Pro-Putin Double Agents: 'Only Tip of the Iceberg'
The Russian secret service FSB has penetrated both the Ukrainian security service SBU and the local government, using fugitive pro-Russian officials from Ukraine who fled after the Maidan uprising in 2014.
The double agents from Ukraine had thus weakened Kiev from "inside out" on behalf of the FSB.
According to the US magazine
Politico
, this was reported by the spokeswoman for the Ukrainian state investigative agency, Tetiana Sapian.
Sapian therefore emphasized that this might just be the tip of the iceberg.
"The network is much larger,"
Politico
quoted Sapian as saying about Putin's double agents.
Ukraine has launched investigations into several suspects.
Not infrequently, these are high-ranking security officers.
Putin and FSB are believed to have used SBU double agents in the war against Ukraine
Until recently, the State Investigative Office of Ukraine and the SBU were investigating Oleh Kulinich, the former head of the Crimean department of the SBU in Kherson.
Law enforcement authorities suspected Kulinich of working as an FSB mole, who had infiltrated Ukraine with the help of fugitive pro-Russian officials, among others.
According to Sapian, in the first hours of the Russian invasion, Kulinich deliberately blocked all attempts to inform the leadership about the real situation in the Kherson region.
In addition, he did not take any measures to protect the sovereignty of Ukraine and left his post to travel to Kiev on February 24.
Kulinich was arrested in July last year and charged with treason.
If found guilty by the court, he faces a life sentence.
Putin's spies work for Ukraine's security service - did they help him invade?
In the past, the Ukrainian security service had often expressed concern because some employees were close to the Kremlin.
More than 60 members of the SBU and the general prosecutor's office remained
in the Russian-held territories and had cooperated with Putin's forces, according to the
Guardian .
The largest attack on a military facility near Lviv in western Ukraine last year was also made possible by a 77-year-old former SBU agent who shared the coordinates.
This was stated by former Deputy Chairman of the Security Service of Ukraine Viktor Yahun.
Some of the SBU employees are being blackmailed into working for the Kremlin, according to Yahun, while others simply "perceive themselves as Russians."
Putin's circle of power in the Kremlin - the confidants of the Russian President
Putin's circle of power in the Kremlin - the confidants of the Russian President
Putin's spies are also multiplying in Germany - the federal government is arming itself for acts of sabotage
Putin's spies posing as diplomats are also said to be multiplying in Germany.
These people have the "advantage that they enjoy criminal immunity," quoted the
daily news
Maik Pawlowsky, who heads counterintelligence at the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
“You can spy in Germany, but the state cannot prosecute these people.
If you catch them in the act, the only option is to expel them from the country.” The Ministry of Defense therefore wants to prepare more for targeted acts of sabotage against Germany in the future.
(bohy)
