Senior Ukrainian intelligence officer sentenced to life for spying for Russia
A court in Kyiv has sentenced Col. Dmytro Kozyura, a former chief of staff of the Anti-Terrorist Center within Ukraine’s security service (SBU), to life in prison for spying for Russia. The Shevchenkivskyi District Court convicted him of high treason committed under martial law and related offences; the verdict can be appealed under Ukrainian law.
Prosecutors say Kozyura was recruited by Russia’s FSB in Vienna in 2018 and reactivated shortly before the full-scale invasion in February 2022, maintaining encrypted contact with his handlers. According to the SBU, he passed classified information on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, air-defense positions and plans, and the results of Russian missile strikes, including casualty figures. He was arrested in February 2025 after a counterintelligence operation the service code-named “Rat.”
The SBU said the operation let it feed disinformation to Moscow while documenting his activity — the kind of double game that turns a mole into a channel before the arrest is made. The case underscores how far Russian recruitment has reached into Ukraine’s own security apparatus, and why Kyiv has prioritized internal vetting alongside the war effort.