Former Crimean law enforcement officers engaged in cyberattacks on Ukraine

The State Bureau of Investigation has completed an investigation into two former Crimean law enforcement officers who carried out cyberattacks on Ukraine as part of a hostile intelligence service.

This was reported by the State Bureau of Investigation.

According to the detectives, former SBU officers in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea are currently carrying out cyberattacks on Ukrainian information systems.

The indictment has been sent to court.

According to the investigation, the men betrayed their oath of office in 2014 and joined the ranks of the Russian Federal Security Service.

"The former law enforcement officers acted in close cooperation with members of the criminal hacker group Armageddon. The offenders attacked computers and automated systems of central government agencies of Ukraine. Their actions led to leakage, blocking of information, distortion of the information processing process and violation of the established procedure for its routing in the interests of the Russian special services," the SBI noted.

The former SBU officers are accused of high treason (under Part 1 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and unauthorized interference with electronic computers and automated systems (Part 2 of Article 361 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

They could face up to 15 years in prison.

Earlier, a former Berkut officer from Crimea was served a notice of suspicion.

Under the procedural supervision of the Vinnytsia Regional Prosecutor's Office, the resident of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea was served a notice of suspicion of high treason (Part 2 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

According to the investigation, the defendant is a former employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. He served in the Berkut special police regiment.

It is noted that in 2014, when Russia occupied Crimea, he betrayed his oath and became a member of one of the illegal armed groups.

After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the man organized an agent network in Donetsk, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Odesa regions.

"Its purpose is to collect intelligence information. The suspect involved a number of residents of the regions where hostilities are taking place in this network. The agents provided information about the locations of military equipment and personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This information was then passed on to representatives of the special services and the armed forces of Russia to direct artillery, missile strikes and other fire damage to Ukrainian positions," the statement said.

Earlier, the collaborator helped Russia deport more than a thousand Ukrainian children.

The minors were taken to Sevastopol in September-October last year under the guise of "voluntary evacuation".

Among the victims are orphans and hundreds of children whose parents were illegally detained by the occupiers while trying to leave the war zone.

To ensure the deportation of minors, the Russian invaders engaged the owner of one of the Crimean travel agencies.

It was she who voluntarily agreed to help the occupiers forcibly take children from Kherson, Melitopol, Donetsk, Luhansk and Makiivka to the territory of the temporarily occupied peninsula.

For this purpose, she provided buses and ensured further accommodation of the deported children at social facilities in Crimea.

Based on the collected evidence, SBU investigators served the owner of the travel agency a notice of suspicion under Part 4 of Art. 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (collaboration).

She is currently hiding in the temporarily occupied territory of southern Ukraine.

Comprehensive measures are under way to establish all the circumstances of the crime and bring the perpetrators to justice.

The investigation is conducted by the SBU officers under the procedural supervision of the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol city.

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