SBU: soldier allegedly guided a Russian strike onto his own unit. The target was a drone repair shop; the FSB, it says, recruited him through a relative

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced that in Kharkiv Oblast it detained a mobilized soldier who, it says, was preparing a Russian missile strike on his own unit. He served as an electrician-technician repairing drone systems, and the target was to be the repair battalion that returns unmanned systems to combat. The Russian FSB allegedly recruited him before mobilization, through a relative living in Russia. The man is so far at the stage of a notice of suspicion, he has not been convicted, and the SBU has not released his name. Interfax-Ukraine ↗ Texty.org.ua ↗

What investigators say he did

According to the SBU, the detainee is a mobilized soldier of a motorized infantry brigade who was in charge of repairing drone systems. He allegedly passed the positions of his own unit and of neighboring formations to his FSB handler. Interfax-Ukraine ↗

What matters is what he allegedly passed on. According to the investigation, these were the coordinates of the repair battalion that restores unmanned systems, handed over specifically to prepare a missile strike. He himself was supposed to slip away from the compound before the planned hit, under the pretext of a trip to the hospital. Mezha ↗

According to the SBU, military counterintelligence detained him in a service vehicle as he was leaving a military facility. At the same time, it says it took measures to protect the locations of Ukrainian soldiers. A search turned up five smartphones, which he allegedly used in turn for encrypted communication with Russia. ATN Charkov ↗

The footage of the detention was released by the SBU and picked up by the Kyiv television channel KYIV24. The report is in Ukrainian.



Investigators notified him of suspicion of high treason committed under martial law, under Article 111, part 2 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code. He is in custody without the option of bail and, if convicted, faces 15 years in prison or life imprisonment, in both cases with confiscation of property. Interfax-Ukraine ↗ Trestný zákon Ukrajiny ↗

Why a drone repair shop is a valuable target

At first glance, a repair battalion is the rear, a dull target compared with a launch position or a command post. In a drone war, however, equipment consumption is calculated differently. According to an analysis by the Polish Centre for Eastern Studies, a single brigade uses up several hundred FPV drones a month, while its actual need is estimated at roughly 2,500. In 2024, as many as 75 percent of drones deployed by both sides were reportedly knocked out of action by jamming. OSW ↗

One answer is production, the other is repairs. The scale of repairs is shown by the ReDrone workshop, run by the Sternenko Community Foundation. According to a report from May of this year, it can restore up to 2,000 drones a month, or 24,000 a year. These are not always damaged machines. Thousands of drones in warehouses are not broken; their components simply no longer suffice for today's conditions at the front. TechRadar ↗

A frequency that stayed usable for roughly half a year in 2023 now loses its value in some sections of the front within three months or sooner. The workshop therefore replaces the drones' transmitters and adapts them to the new jamming. TechRadar ↗

The Modern War Institute, a specialist outlet linked to the US military academy at West Point, proposes for the American army a model it calls repair forward, replace fast. It refers to both Ukraine and Russia, where both sides have moved maintenance and modifications closer to operators. The reason is that drone technology changes faster than a regulation can be written. Modern War Institute ↗

What exactly the battalion in this case was responsible for and what its output was, the SBU does not say.

This is not the first case in the same region

In March of this year, the SBU announced the detention of a soldier who allegedly spied for both Russian and Belarusian services, having served in the Unmanned Systems Forces and later moved to a ground robotics unit. According to the investigation, he passed on data about the movement, types and numbers of Ukrainian drones near the north-eastern border and later about the deployment of forces in the Izium direction. Searches at that time also took place in Kharkiv Oblast. Kyiv Post ↗

The numbers also suggest this is not an isolated failure, although they cannot be compared directly with one another. According to data published in August 2025, SBU military counterintelligence has uncovered 207 agents of Russian services since the start of the full-scale invasion who were collecting information about Ukrainian forces and military facilities. Of them, 52 were active-duty soldiers, and courts sentenced 44 people to terms of 12 to 15 years. Ukrinform ↗

Another figure dates from December 2025 and is counted differently: specifically, agents uncovered directly within the ranks of the Defense Forces. There have been 68 since the start of the full-scale invasion, and in 2025 alone the SBU detained 19 of them. Ten people have already been sentenced, seven of them to 15 years. Glavcom ↗

The method of recruitment, an approach through a relative living in Russia before enlistment, is stated in this case by the SBU. More generally, it warned in August that Russian services also target the families of Ukrainian prisoners of war. Texty.org.ua ↗ Espreso ↗

Limits of this view

Everything we know about the case comes from a single source, the SBU. It is at once the investigator, a party to the conflict and the sole communicator, and we found no independent verification of its account. The video and photographs of the detention also come from it.

The man has not been convicted; he is at the stage of a notice of suspicion. What is now described as a planned strike on his own unit will have to stand up in court, and the SBU's interim announcements do not tell us how many other such cases will actually end in a conviction.

The aggregate figures are also older than they seem at first glance. The figure of 207 agents is from August 2025 and also appeared in a Focus.ua text on the 35th anniversary of the SBU from 20 September 2026, again without an update. The latest separate figure on agents directly within the Defense Forces is from December 2025, and we found no newer aggregate overview. Focus.ua ↗

Finally, the SBU does not say whether or when the announced strike was supposed to take place. It says only that it carried out measures to protect the affected locations.

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