Ukraine Arrests Local UN Volunteer in Pokrovsk Suspected of Espionage

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced on Monday that it had arrested a34-year-old local man who reportedly used his role as a volunteer with the UN World Food Program to spy on Ukrainian positions in Pokrovsk. The actual date of the arrest wasn’t released.

Pokrovsk, a city in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, is currently seen as Russia’s key strategic objective in its quest to capture and eventually annex Ukraine’s Donbas region in its entirety.

According to the SBU press release, the suspect was tasked with identifying “locations of Ukrainian infantrymen and artillery, which are holding the defense under the district center.”

The SBU said the suspect relayed the information to his handler from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), whose identity had previously been established Ukrainian iinvestigations. The SBU said it seized the device used to communicate with the Russian handler as part of its inquiry.

“He sent the received data via messenger to his Russian curator – a personnel officer of the FSB, whose identity has already been established by the counterintelligence of the Security Service.

“The [Russians] used information from the agent to plan new attacks on Pokrovsk using guided air bombs and [first-person view] FPV drones,” the press release said.

SBU counter-intelligence agents say they exposed the agent in the early stages of his attempted intelligence activity, detaining him before he was able to cause serious damage. At the same time Ukraine’s defense forces took steps to ensure that its positions were secured.

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The motive of the alleged spy remains unclear.

The suspect has been charged with treason under martial law and faces life in prison and confiscation of his property if convicted.

Pokrovsk was once home to around 60,000 people prior to the February 2022 invasion. The town’s whose population is now believed to be less than 12,000 in the face of intensified Russian attacks this year. However, a glimpse of normality remained in the frontline city as some locals were adamant about providing food to troops and locals.