Ukrainian security forces neutralize FSB group behind Russian rocket and bomb attacks on residential areas in Kherson

The Ukrainian security service conducted a multi-stage special operation and neutralized an underground group of Russian FSB agents in Kherson. 

The Ukrainian officers detained all three members of the Russian group, which adjusted artillery fire and rocket-bomb strikes on the city, Rubryka reports.

Providing coordinates to the Russian forces, the detainees became responsible for completely destroying two houses and damaging five more in the regional center in late September this year. The Russian shelling, adjusted by the agents, caused about ten civilian casualties.

According to the investigation, the organizer and leader of the local anti-Ukrainian underground was a former businessman who went over to the enemy after the Russian forces captured the city in March 2022. Then, he got a job at the occupation authorities in the so-called "Kherson Railway of the Russian Federation," where he helped the movement of echelons with Russian military equipment.

While working for the occupiers, the leader caught the eye of the Russian FSB, which soon recruited him. After the city's liberation in November last year, the traitor "laid low" for a while, but later, he contacted his "curator" from the occupied left bank of the Kherson region and received tasks from him.

On the instructions of the Russian officer, he created his own group of informants, to which he recruited two pro-Russian residents. During the capture of the city, one of them took part in filming staged stories for the mouthpiece of the Kremlin — RIA Novosti.

After the group was formed, its members began to determine the coordinates of buildings and residences of citizens in Kherson. They were also interested in the Ukrainian forces' main bases and movement routes in the city and its surroundings. The received information was transmitted to the Russians through anonymous messengers.

The Russian forces needed intelligence information to carry out massive attacks on the liberated city using rockets, guided aerial bombs, barrel artillery, and rocket launchers.

During the search of the residences of the detainees, the Ukrainian security officers discovered binoculars, mobile phones, and computers that they used in criminal activities. Pro-Kremlin symbols and Russian rubles, which they received for cooperating with the occupiers, were also confiscated from the detainees.

The group's leader has been informed of the suspicion. He faces life imprisonment. All of them are in custody. The investigation is ongoing.