Ukraine arrests two Russian spies inspecting Oreshnik missile damage

BERLIN — Ukraine claims to have detained two Russian spies who were involved in scoping out the damage caused by Moscow’s Oreshnik ballistic missile in Lviv.

Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, said in a statement the suspects were a 64-year-old from the southwestern Transcarpathia region of Ukraine and his 22-year-old unemployed neighbor. The arrest was announced in the morning of Thursday, local time.

According to the SBU, the agents were working for Russia’s military intelligence, the GRU, and were tasked with collecting data on the damage done by the nuclear-capable Oreshnik cruise missile.

The junior partner in the spy duo traveled from Transcarpathia to Lviv, where the rocket had struck in the night to Jan. 9, and then “gradually passed by the locations in the area of ​​the rocket attack, took photos of them, and recorded the coordinates on Google Maps,” according to the SBU. The older man, who had remained in his home in the southwestern Ukranian city of Mukachevo, took possession of the information collected and passed it on to Russian handlers.

Ukrainian intelligence said that the 64-year-old had been “recruited remotely” by Russian intelligence.

“According to available data, the Russians needed information about the scale of destruction of Ukrainian facilities after the strike in order to use it in their information and psychological special operations and to plan new attacks on the region,” the SBU said in its press release.

Ukrainian authorities said they detained both men simultaneously, the senior agent at his home in Mukachevo and the junior one while again snooping around the missile impact site in Lviv.

The Oreshnik is a Russian intermediate-range ballistic missile considered a significant step up in missile technology. It was first used in combat in November 2024 against Ukraine, marking the first known combat use of MIRVs − Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicles. The missile can carry up to 36 submunitions, either nuclear or conventional, in a six-MIRV configuration. Combined with the high reentry speeds of around ten times the speed of sound, this makes it difficult to intercept.

There has been no public reaction by Russian authorities to the reported arrests in Ukraine.

Linus Höller is Defense News' Europe correspondent and OSINT investigator. He reports on the arms deals, sanctions, and geopolitics shaping Europe and the world. He holds master’s degrees in WMD nonproliferation, terrorism studies, and international relations, and works in four languages: English, German, Russian, and Spanish.

柏林——乌克兰声称拘留了两名俄罗斯间谍，他们参与了侦察莫斯科“奥列什尼克”弹道导弹在利沃夫造成的破坏。

乌克兰国家安全局（SBU）在一份声明中表示，嫌疑人分别为一名来自乌克兰西南部外喀尔巴阡州的64岁男子及其22岁的失业邻居。逮捕行动于当地时间周四上午宣布。

据俄罗斯国家安全局称，这些特工为俄罗斯军事情报机构格鲁乌工作，其任务是收集有关可携带核弹头的“奥列什尼克”巡航导弹造成的破坏的数据。

据乌克兰国家安全局（SBU）称，这对间谍搭档中较年轻的一人从外喀尔巴阡州前往利沃夫，那里是1月9日夜间火箭弹落点。随后，他“陆续经过火箭弹袭击区域的各个地点，拍摄照片，并将坐标记录在谷歌地图上”。另一名年长的男子则留在位于乌克兰西南部城市穆卡切沃的家中，接收了收集到的信息，并将其传递给了俄罗斯的联络人。

乌克兰情报部门称，这名 64 岁的老人是被俄罗斯情报部门“远程招募”的。

乌克兰国家安全局在新闻稿中表示：“根据现有数据，俄罗斯需要了解袭击后乌克兰设施的破坏规模，以便将其用于情报和心理特种作战，并策划对该地区的新袭击。”

乌克兰当局表示，他们同时拘留了这两名男子，高级特工在其位于穆卡切沃的家中被捕，而初级特工则在利沃夫导弹落点附近再次进行侦察时被捕。

“奥列什尼克”是俄罗斯研制的一种中程弹道导弹，被认为是导弹技术的一次重大飞跃。它于2024年11月首次在实战中使用，目标是乌克兰，这标志着多弹头分导式再入飞行器（MIRV）首次在实战中投入使用。该导弹采用六联装MIRV配置，最多可携带36枚子弹药，可以是核子弹药或常规子弹药。再加上其高达十倍音速的再入速度，使得拦截难度极大。

俄罗斯当局尚未对乌克兰发生的逮捕事件作出任何公开回应。

林努斯·霍勒是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者和开源情报调查员。他报道影响欧洲乃至全球的军火交易、制裁和地缘政治。他拥有大规模杀伤性武器不扩散、恐怖主义研究和国际关系三个硕士学位，并精通英语、德语、俄语和西班牙语四种语言。