Another Honeypot Spilled – Ukraine Arrests Collaborator Lured to Work for Moscow Through Dating Chat

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) arrested an unemployed man who lives in Derhachi, a city near Kharkiv, when he was taking pictures of military positions under orders from a Russian woman he met through a dating chat on social media.

According to the SBU press release, the man holds pro-Russian views and was approached by a “liaison officer of the Russian special service” who pretended to be an ordinary citizen “through the popular dating chat in the Telegram messenger.”

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office said the woman posed as a journalist and “acted as a ‘liaison’ between the suspect and the Russian special services.”

“The ‘journalist’ began a ‘romantic relationship’ with the man, and he, in turn, collected and handed over to her the location of the Ukrainian military and equipment in Derhachi.

“The suspect went around the city and covertly photographed the bases of the Defense Forces. This information was necessary for the Russian Federation to carry out targeted missile strikes and drone attacks on the city,” read the agency’s press release. 

However, neither the SBU nor the Prosecutor General’s Office established the Russian woman’s identity, and it’s not immediately clear from the press releases whether they met in person and whether the woman in question was actually a woman.

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Russian security forces say the suspect – a 28-year-old Uzbek citizen – admitted during interrogation to having been recruited by Ukrainian special services.

The SBU said the man was arrested “red-handed” when he was photographing Ukrainian troop movements.

“At the scene, a phone was seized from him, which the suspect used to communicate with his Russian ‘girlfriend’ and take photos of military objects,” read the SBU press release.

The Prosecutor’s General Office also provided photos of conversations between the suspect and the supposedly Russian woman, where the latter said she “gets very upset when [he] disappoints [her]” while pushing the former for photos.

Photo of conversations between the suspect and the supposedly Russian woman. Photo: Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office

“To be honest, I am really looking forward to a message from you with positive news. And I get very upset when you disappoint me.

“I hope tomorrow I wake up and see a positive message from you with the photos you promised,” her messages to the suspect read.

The man faces eight years in prison if convicted.