SBU arrests collaborator suspected of setting up repeater stations for Russian drones in Kyiv
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The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), together with the National Police, detained a Russian collaborator, allegedly hired by the Federal Security Service (FSB) to help direct long-range mass attacks on the Ukrainian capital.
The man was suspected of "collecting data on defense facilities and critical infrastructure to adjust massive attacks on Kyiv from September 21 to 24 this year," the SBU said on Telegram on Oct. 5.
According to the case materials, the attacker tracked potential "targets" for four days in order to direct Geran-5 type jet drones and ballistic missiles at the capital.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russian collaborators helping Moscow's war effort inside Ukraine have been a consistent focus of the work of Ukrainian counterintelligence.
In recent weeks, Russia’s daytime jet-powered drone attacks on the Ukrainian capital have become notorious not only for their difficulty to intercept, but also for their precision, highlighted by the targeting of bridges across the Dnipro River.
This has been enabled by the use of mesh radio networks, built around a decentralized network of radio repeaters that allows both airborne drones and ground-based repeaters to constantly share radio and control signals between them in real time.
On October 3, presidential advisor Serhii "Flash" Beskretnov asserted that the increased precision of Russian strikes on central Kyiv must have been enabled by the existence of mesh radio repeaters located inside the Ukrainian capital, something that suggested the presence of well-resourced collaborators assisting the Russian strikes.
The news comes after Russian jet-powered drones hit two of the most important bridges across the Dnipro River in Kyiv, the southern and northern bridges, several days in a row.
