A Russian spy who was gathering intelligence in the Kherson region has been implicated in the murder of a soldier

Journalists have uncovered a possible link between a Russian FSB officer who was gathering intelligence in the occupied Kherson region and the case involving the murder of a Ukrainian soldier in Rivne. The individual in question is a Russian national named Denis Zhuravlev.

This is detailed in an investigation by “Slidstvo.Info.”

According to the journalists, Zhuravlev’s name is mentioned in the case files of the criminal investigation into the murder of 27-year-old soldier Serhiy Komarov. In this case, a 14-year-old girl named Katya is accused; according to investigators, Russian special services recruited her to kill the soldier.

According to the publication’s sources, the girl communicated with a person who claimed to be an employee of Russia’s FSB intelligence agency and used the pseudonym “Lucifer.” Journalists found the same nickname in Telegram groups linked to the recruitment of people for sabotage operations in Ukraine.

However, there is currently no evidence that Zhuravlev is the person behind the “Lucifer” account. It has also not been established whether he was involved in recruiting Ukrainian teenagers to carry out attacks on military personnel.

At the same time, it is known that at the start of the full-scale invasion, Zhuravlev worked at the FSB’s Rostov Oblast office and was stationed in the occupied Kherson region. There, he sought out local residents who could be recruited to gather intelligence for Russian intelligence agencies.

The information gathered was passed on to the Russian military. It was used to prepare missile and artillery strikes against Ukrainian positions and critical infrastructure. Civilians were killed as a result of these attacks.

A Ukrainian court sentenced Zhuravlev in absentia to 14 years in prison for espionage.

Ірина Глухова