The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said on Aug. 14 it had uncovered a Russian intelligence cell that included two former members of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych's security detail and an active member of Ukraine's National Guard.
Yanukovych was Ukraine's pro-Kremlin head of state who held office from 2010 until 2014, when he fled to Russia in the wake of the EuroMaidan Revolution.
Two former members of Yanukovych's security were part of a Russian spy cell that collected information on high-ranking officials and security agencies to eliminate, manipulate, or recruit Ukrainian functionaries, the SBU said.
The cell's main agent was 48-year-old Dmytro Ivantsov, a former head of a unit of the State Security Administration (UDO). The UDO's main tasks include ensuring the security of the president of Ukraine and high-ranking officials of the state.
The other two suspected agents are Roman Lapa, a former deputy head of Yanukovych's security, and a 46-year-old active service member of Ukraine's National Guard from Kyiv whose identity was not revealed.
The Security Service believes that Ivantsov was recruited by Igor Egorov, an agent of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), sometime before 2012.
According to the SBU, Ivantsotv and Lapa live in Russian-occupied Crimea and work with Russia's FSB. The agency also believes that Ivantsov handed over secret plans prepared in the case of the president's death to Russian intelligence.
The National Guard service member, who was collecting information from internal systems in order to pass it to his collaborators, has been detained, the statement read. He was charged with treason and faces up to 15 years in prison.
In May, the SBU said it had uncovered a network of Russian agents who were preparing the assassination of President Volodymyr Zelensky and other high-ranking officials in Ukraine.
Two UDO colonels were accused of leaking classified information to Russia in connection to the plot. The agency's head, Serhii Rud, was dismissed soon after.
Sofiya Doig
