Two ‘undercover Russian secret service agents’ arrested and charged with treason in Mykolaiv
The Security Service of Ukraine reports having arrested two “undercover Russian secret service agents.” The two men were paid to report on the results of air strikes on Mykolaiv to the Russian side. They also gathered information about Ukrainian military units in areas adjacent to the front. In addition, they presented themselves as bloggers, creating “on-spec content for the Kremlin media” and calling for the Russian capture of Mykolaiv and the murder of the city’s leadership. The Ukrainian side is now investigating the two men for treason.
The suspects appear to have been in touch with representatives of RIA Novosti, who “determined the subjects for propaganda materials and the timeline for their creation and delivery to Moscow,” as stated by the SSU.
RIA Novosti is part of the RT media group, whose press service called the SSU’s report a “fake”: “RIA Novosti never had any staff members in Nikolayev,” they said, adding:
We would receive and publish information about the situation in the city from local residents, via their acquaintances in different cities, but none of them have ever been employed by RIA Novosti or served as a “correspondent” — we have no such titles on our staff.
In the early hours of October 25, RIA Novosti published a video of a man identified as a member of Mykolaiv’s “pro-Russian underground.” His face was concealed as he said that the “underground” members had been armed by their sympathizers among the Ukrainian military, and that Mykolaiv residents would “definitely attain liberation.” RIA Novosti then acknowledged that the same person had provided multiple video-reports of the situation in Mykolaiv.
Mykolaiv is a city in the south of Ukraine, located close to Kherson. Since the start of the war, it regularly comes under fire. Since April, its residents are left without drinking water supply, due to the damage to the city’s main water-supply pipe. The BBC has reported that the water pipe had been deliberately blown up by the Russian side on a Russian-controlled segment in the Kherson region.
Follow Meduza in English on Twitter to stay up to date.