A 55-year-old runner and trainer was sentenced in Ukraine to 15 years in prison for spying for Russia, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced on Friday. The man, arrested red-handed in May last year, ran from 10 to 50 kilometers a day, photographing and filming strategic objects.
Security Service investigation Ukraine showed that the 55-year-old trainer was remotely recruited by an officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) in March 2022. The Russians noticed him because during the USSR he graduated from a military college in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), and until 1992 he served in an elite unit of the Red Army (and later in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation).
It was the 2nd Guards Taman Mechanized Division named after M. Kalinina, which was dissolved in 2009. Later it was transferred to retirement and moved to Ukraine, to the Khmelnytsky Oblast located in the western part of the country.
Read also: The Ukrainians boasted of a “series of successful actions” on the occupied bank of the Dnieper
A former Russian soldier and athlete was found guilty of collecting intelligence information on the deployment and movement of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Khmelnytsky Oblast. He ran 10 to 50 km almost every day, taking photos and recording videos. He was sentenced by the court to 15 years in prison.
Retired runner sentenced to 15 years in prisonSecurity Service of Ukraine
He developed a map for the needs of the Russians
One of the main tasks of the “runner” was to collect data on where heavy weapons were stationed and the locations of ammunition warehouses.
He also prepared a map for the enemy’s needs, on which he marked the coordinates of Ukrainian checkpoints on the main roads of the region. SBU officers arrested him in May 2022 red-handed while photographing railway infrastructure facilities.
The Khmelnytsky Oblast was repeatedly shelled by Russian troops. The last massive attacks on this region took place at the end of October this year, when the Russian occupiers shelled the infrastructure for four days in a row, including: school facilities. On October 25, Russian forces attacked the area near the Khmelnytsky Nuclear Power Plant with missiles and damaged, among others, power lines.
Main photo source: Security Service of Ukraine