BERLIN — Ukraine claims to have detained two Russian spies who have been concerned in scoping out the injury attributable to Moscow’s Oreshnik ballistic missile in Lviv.
Ukraine’s safety service, the SBU, stated in a press release the suspects have been a 64-year-old from the southwestern Transcarpathia area of Ukraine and his 22-year-old unemployed neighbor. The arrest was introduced within the morning of Thursday, native time.
In keeping with the SBU, the brokers have been working for Russia’s army intelligence, the GRU, and have been tasked with accumulating information on the injury achieved by the nuclear-capable Oreshnik cruise missile.
The junior associate within the spy duo traveled from Transcarpathia to Lviv, the place the rocket had struck within the night time to Jan. 9, after which “regularly handed by the areas within the space of the rocket assault, took pictures of them, and recorded the coordinates on Google Maps,” in response to the SBU. The older man, who had remained in his dwelling within the southwestern Ukranian metropolis of Mukachevo, took possession of the data collected and handed it on to Russian handlers.
Ukrainian intelligence stated that the 64-year-old had been “recruited remotely” by Russian intelligence.
“In keeping with obtainable information, the Russians wanted details about the size of destruction of Ukrainian services after the strike to be able to use it of their info and psychological particular operations and to plan new assaults on the area,” the SBU stated in its press launch.
Ukrainian authorities stated they detained each males concurrently, the senior agent at his dwelling in Mukachevo and the junior one whereas once more snooping across the missile impression web site in Lviv.
The Oreshnik is a Russian intermediate-range ballistic missile thought-about a major step up in missile know-how. It was first utilized in fight in November 2024 in opposition to Ukraine, marking the primary identified fight use of MIRVs − A number of Independently Targetable Reentry Automobiles. The missile can carry as much as 36 submunitions, both nuclear or typical, in a six-MIRV configuration. Mixed with the excessive reentry speeds of round ten instances the velocity of sound, this makes it troublesome to intercept.
There was no public response by Russian authorities to the reported arrests in Ukraine.
Linus Höller is Protection Information’ Europe correspondent and OSINT investigator. He reviews on the arms offers, sanctions, and geopolitics shaping Europe and the world. He holds a grasp’s levels in WMD nonproliferation, terrorism research, and worldwide relations, and works in 4 languages: English, German, Russian, and Spanish.
