Taking a fig leaf from Kyiv’s playbook, Russia hired a mole to destroy Ukraine’s indigenously developed Neptune missile complex. However, the plan was uncovered by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), and the man appointed for the job by the Russian intelligence agency was arrested.
Ukraine’s military counterintelligence agents, aided by the Naval Command and the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, arrested a 33-year-old Ukrainian service member accused of spying for Russian military intelligence, the SBU announced in an official statement on June 19.
“SBU detained a Russian ‘mole’ who was preparing a Russian attack on Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship complexes,” the agency posted on X, along with the photo of the accused.
The accused was allegedly hired by Russia’s military intelligence to track down Ukrainian units that were operating the Neptune missile installation in southern Ukraine. According to the service, the accused was instructed to provide the geolocation information of missile units in charge of protecting the Black Sea’s coastline.
The SBU said that Russian forces intended to use cruise missiles and loitering munitions in a joint attack once they had the coordinates. According to the alleged plan devised by the Russians, the accused would have been given advance notice, allowing him to stay out of the attack zone.
The Ukrainian special service revealed that it was able to “document the suspect’s reconnaissance activity and prevent the transmission of sensitive data.”
It noted that the spy was caught as he was getting ready to present an intelligence report to his handlers after locating the targeted troops. During the searches, the detainee was seized with a phone with evidence of his work for the enemy.
Further investigation revealed that the accused was also instructed to assist in correcting enemy shelling of the training centers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, where he had previously undergone military training.
The mole has been taken into custody and faces life imprisonment, along with the confiscation of his property. “Complex measures were carried out under the procedural guidance of the Odesa Specialized Prosecutor’s Office in the field of defense of the Southern region,” reads the SBU statement.
The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) has not officially responded to these allegations at the time of writing this report.
Interestingly, the development comes days after the Ukrainian SBU managed to infiltrate its suicide First Person View (FPV) drones hidden inside trucks, deep inside Russian territory, as part of its Operation Spiderweb.
These drones were then remotely launched to attack multiple Russian air bases and strategic aircraft sitting there. According to the SBU estimate, Russia lost aircraft worth nearly $7 billion in the surprise attack.
Earlier, the Russian Intelligence Agency, FSB, had discovered in 2023 that the Ukrainian intelligence operatives tried to persuade a Russian pilot, trained initially to fly Tupolev Tu-160 and involved in bombing operations in Ukraine, to defect along with his Tu-22M3 strategic bomber. Thus, it indicates that the practice of hiring moles to cause sabotage is not new and runs deeper across borders.
Notably, the arrest of the mole by Ukraine comes after Russia accused Ukraine of planning a sabotage in the Baltic against the US Navy in collusion with the UK spy agency to frame Moscow, as recently reported by the EurAsian Times.
“According to the information coming to the SVR, amid growing problems for Ukraine’s Armed Forces (AFU) on the front lines and the widespread moral exhaustion among Ukrainian people in the rear, the Zelensky regime is intending to escalate the subversive and terrorist activity against Russia,” the SVR press bureau said in a statement.
With no conclusive end to the raging conflict in sight, the two sides are apparently engaging in conspiracies and sabotage activities to weaken one another.
Nonetheless, the attack on Neptune anti-ship complexes would have been significant, given the combat utility of these locally produced missiles. It is the same missile that dealt the first major blow to the Russian Baltic Sea Fleet by sinking its flagship cruiser, Moskva.
Neptune Missiles
The Neptune missile first gained international attention on April 14, 2022, when it dealt a devastating blow to the Russian Navy by sinking the Moskva, one of the largest warships in the Black Sea Fleet and a significant asset in Russia’s naval arsenal.
The loss of the Moskva, estimated at US$750 million, stands as one of the most substantial setbacks for Russia in its campaign against Ukraine so far.
The missile was hailed as a game-changer that compelled Russia to withdraw its Black Sea Fleet further from Ukrainian shores.
Additionally, its presence has been instrumental in dissuading Moscow from pursuing planned landing operations on Ukrainian territory, notably including Snake Island, situated well within the formidable striking range of the Neptune missile system.
The Neptune system includes mobile command posts, launchers, and transport vehicles. It is deployable up to 25 kilometers inland and can be made operational within 15 minutes. The low-altitude flight and radar seeker of the missile make it effective against ships, as demonstrated by its operational successes.
This missile system was primarily designed to target naval vessels up to 9,000 tons, including cruisers, destroyers, and landing ships. However, by 2023, Ukraine had started deploying a land-attack version of the formidable Neptune missile.
According to reports, Ukraine used a land-attack Neptune to neutralize a Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system in Crimea in August 2023, followed by strikes against a Crimea air base the following month.
The modified land-attack variant, equipped with GPS and infrared guidance, is used to target ground-based high-value assets, such as air defenses, oil facilities, and ammunition depots. Ukraine has extensively deployed this variant, much to Russia’s chagrin.
Additionally, Ukraine also unveiled a long-range variant of the Neptune missile earlier this year. Named the “Long Neptune” variant, the missile boasts a range of 1,000 kilometres.
It was reportedly combat-tested in March 2025. Notably, the range of this missile places Ukraine among a select group of nations with long-range cruise missile capabilities, surpassing many Western-supplied systems, such as the Storm Shadow. However, scaling production of this new variant is a challenge for Kyiv.
It is, perhaps, for this reason that Russia wanted to destroy these missile complexes before they could pose a significant threat to Russian forces, particularly in the Crimean peninsula.
- Contact the author at sakshi.tiwari9555 (at) gmail.com
- Follow EurAsian Times on Google News
