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SBU: 3 members of Russian spy network apprehended in Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsia, Odesa oblasts

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SBU: 3 members of Russian spy network apprehended in Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsia, Odesa oblasts
The SBU reported on June 5 that it had apprehended members of a Russian spy wring operating in central and southern Ukraine. (Photo: SBU / Telegram)

Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) reported on June 5 that it apprehended three members of a Russian spy network operating in Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsia, and Odesa oblasts.

According to the SBU, the Russian spy ring was attempting to collect intelligence on the Ukrainian military's locations, weaponry, and personnel composition in the three oblasts.

Members of the spy ring received up to $500 for each completed task, depending on the "urgency" and "quality" of their work.

In Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, a Russian agent who went by the codename "Thunder" posed as an unemployed person in Kryvyi Rih.  

He took up short-term employment assignments near critical facilities so that he could draw up defensive line schemes and identify locations where equipment and ammunition were stored in the city, according to the SBU.

In Odesa Oblast, another spy obtained the codes used to move freely within the city during curfew and pass through checkpoints by covertly attempting to "utilize his acquaintances among Ukrainian military and law enforcement personnel," the SBU wrote.

He was also reportedly tasked with determining the coordinates of military facilities in the region.

In Vinnystia Oblast, another spy attempted to determine the coordinates of the Air Force Command Headquarters and National Guard units.

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Kate Tsurkan

Culture Reporter

Kate Tsurkan is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent who writes mostly about culture-related topics. Her newsletter Explaining Ukraine with Kate Tsurkan, which focuses specifically on Ukrainian culture, is published weekly by the Kyiv Independent and is partially supported by a generous grant from the Nadia Sophie Seiler Fund. Kate co-translated Oleh Sentsov’s “Diary of a Hunger Striker,” Myroslav Laiuk’s “Bakhmut,” Andriy Lyubka’s “War from the Rear,” and Khrystia Vengryniuk’s “Long Eyes,” among other books. Some of her previous writing and translations have appeared in the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Harpers, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. She is the co-founder of Apofenie Magazine and, in addition to Ukrainian and Russian, also knows French.

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