Ukraine says it has detained two Russian spies involved in assessing damage from Moscow's Oreshnik ballistic missile strike in Lviv. The arrests were announced on Thursday by Ukraine's security service, the SBU.
The suspects include a 64-year-old man from Mukachevo in southwestern Ukraine and his 22-year-old unemployed neighbor from the same region. Ukrainian authorities said both were working for Russia's military intelligence, the GRU.
According to the SBU, the younger man traveled to Lviv shortly after the Jan. 9 missile strike, taking photos of damaged sites and recording coordinates on Google Maps. The older man, who stayed in Mukachevo, collected the information and passed it on to Russian handlers.
Ukrainian intelligence said the 64-year-old had been recruited remotely and that the data was intended for Russian psychological operations and planning of future attacks in the region. Both men were arrested simultaneously, one at home and the other at the missile impact site.
The Oreshnik missile, first used in combat in November 2024, is a nuclear-capable, intermediate-range system with MIRVs, able to carry multiple submunitions at extremely high speeds. Russian authorities have not publicly commented on the arrests...
Further reading: Everything to know about the Oreshnik.