Ukraine’s SBU security service said Tuesday it had uncovered a network of agents working for Russian military intelligence who tried to find where Ukraine keeps its Western-supplied F-16 jets.
Ukraine received its first US-made F-16 fighter jets in August after long pleading for the planes to help intercept Russian missiles. Their location is a closely-kept secret.
The SBU said it “neutralized a large-scale agent network” of 12 agents and their informants, who “tried to identify the locations of secret military airfields where, according to the Russians, F-16 aircraft might be based.”
The agents also carried out reconnaissance operations on firing positions of Ukraine’s air defense systems and tried to find companies producing electronic warfare equipment to counter drones, the SBU said.
It said the group’s сhief was located in the Dnipropetrovsk region and passed information to a Russian minder, while agents were working in five regions.
The SBU published images of four detained men with faces blurred.
If convicted, they face between eight years and life in prison.
One of Ukraine’s F-16 planes crashed in August, killing the pilot.