KHERSON, July 25. /TASS/. Russian special services have exposed a spy network of the Ukrainian Navy’s 73rd maritime center of special operation, which was operating on the Kinburn peninsula in the Dnieper Estuary, a source in the Russian law enforcement agencies told TASS on Monday.
"A spy network of the Ukrainian Navy’s 73rd maritime center of special operations has been exposed. Since the beginning of the special military operation, it was engaged in reconnaissance activities on the territory of the Kinburn peninsula in the Dnieper Estuary. The network’s members were in charge of receiving, accommodating and transporting Ukrainian sabotage groups, hatched a series of terror attacks at the Russian defense ministry’s and civil infrastructure facilities in the Kherson region. By today, all members of the network have been detained. They are making confessions and are cooperating with Russian security services," the source said.
According to the source, it was a sleeper cell, which was activated by a special signal from Ukraine. "Russian security services have already received important data about the channel, formats and methods of operation of the Ukrainian Navy’s 73rd maritime center of special operations," he said.
One of those detained is Alexey Zagrai, codenamed Ochakovsky, a resident of the city of Ochakov with a previous criminal record for robbery, who maintained contact with Captain Sergey Kirichenko from the 73rd center, who tasked the man in March to go to his sick brother in a hunting farm on the Kinburn peninsula. "I was to contact Russian military and local residents and gain their trust not be suspected of anything. I was staying at the hunting farm and send data about Russian troops - how many people, how many cars, etc. to an agent codenamed Sharik in Ochakov. Sharik was a contact between me and the headquarters in Ochakov," the detained man told TASS. "Another man codenamed Miron was a guide. I met boats and Miron led them to a safe place. There were two groups of from five to ten people."
Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov said earlier on Monday that Russian forces foiled an attempt by the Ukrainian military to land a subversive group from assault boats in the Kherson Region and destroyed two gunboats of Ukraine’s Navy.
The Kherson region is located in southern Ukraine and orders the Republic of Crimea. In mid-March, Russia’s defense ministry said that the region was under full control of the Russian forces. A military-civilian administration was formed in the region in late April. The local authorities have declared their intention to join Russia.