Ukraine long appealed to get American fighter jets of the F-16 model. The first planes finally arrived in Ukraine at the end of summer 2024.
– F-16 planes in Ukraine, we did it, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at a ceremony at a secret air base, standing in front of the new planes.
In connection with the arrival of the first shipment to Ukraine Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia would shoot down the plane and that they would have no impact on the war.
Deserted from the army – recruited by the GRU
Despite the statements of Peskov, Russia seems to have had a great interest in the American-made fighter planes.
In a statement, the Ukrainian security service, SBU, states that it has “neutralized” an extensive network of Russian agents from the Russian military intelligence service GRU. A total of twelve Russian agents and several informants have been revealed.
The espionage must have taken place in five different regions and part of the group must have been Ukrainian deserters, who, according to the SBU, were recruited by the GRU.
“Some of them are deserters who voluntarily left their units within the Ukrainian armed forces and were recruited by the Russian intelligence service,” writes the SBU.
The leader of the network is said to have stayed in the Dnipro region. With the help of false documents and certificates, he allegedly tried to stay under the radar and recruited several people to the network.
SBU: Specialized in hunting down F-16s
The five regions where the espionage allegedly took place are Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Odessa and Zaporizhzhya. There they allegedly tried to map secret military air bases where F-16 planes could be stationed, according to Russian information. According to the SBU, they should have “specialized in hunting F-16”
In addition to fighter jets, they also allegedly tried to map Ukrainian air defense positions and companies that produce various products to disrupt Russian drones.
The information gathering is said to have taken place, among other things, through Ukrainian soldiers who were unaware of the intentions of the Russian agents. The information must have then been forwarded to a local leader within the agent network to then be sent to the leader in the Dnipro region, who in turn had direct contact with the principals in Russia.
Can be sentenced to life imprisonment
According to the SBU, the network was uncovered in good time by military counterintelligence. During house searches in connection with the arrests, mobile phones, USB sticks, military documents and false certificates are said to have been seized.
The suspects now risk prosecution for treason and unauthorized dissemination of information about the Ukrainian military.
“The crimes can result in punishment from eight years in prison to life,” writes the SBU.