In Frankiv Oblast, a IT guy, a blogger and a mathematics teacher, who on February 4, 2022 worked as gunners for an attack on the Ivano-Frankivsk airport, were convicted. We tell how a teacher, an IT specialist and a blogger became agents of the FSB
In Frankiv Oblast, a IT guy, a blogger and a mathematics teacher, who on February 4, 2022 worked as gunners for an attack on the Ivano-Frankivsk airport, were convicted. We tell how a teacher, an IT specialist and a blogger became agents of the FSB
As Watchers writes, on November 1, the Ivano-Frankivsk city court found blogger Dmytro Kuznetsov from Kharkiv, Oleksandr Vikhlyayev from Kyiv, and mathematics teacher from the capital Halyna Kryshtal guilty of treason. We chose the main one from the investigation of colleagues.
All three Ukrainians became involved in the case of intelligence assistance to the special services of the Russian Federation with the preparation of the Caliber missile attack on the first day of the full-scale invasion, on February 24, 2022, at the Ivano-Frankivsk airfield.
The investigation believes that the resident of Kharkiv and the woman from Kyiv collected and sent intelligence information. For this, they were first recruited, and then ordered to move to Prykarpattia, closer to the facility. The third figure was supposed to ensure the transfer of data, and after the implementation of the «plan» — to take the other two abroad.
The blogger and math teacher partially pleaded guilty during the pre-trial investigation and provided new details, but during the trial they sharply denied cooperation with the FSB, as well as joint work by the group. However, the technical data of mobile communications repeatedly recorded their meetings.
All three Ukrainians were recruited before the Great War and were given tasks that were part of the plan for the first day of a full-scale invasion, but did not alert the Ukrainian intelligence services, military or law enforcement.
Law enforcement officers believe that Dmytro Kuznetsov was recruited by the Russians in the Russian church in France. In October 2021, the defendant visited one of the temples of the Russian Orthodox Church in the city of Nice. It was there that he met with a representative of the special services of the Russian Federation named Nikolai and agreed to cooperate for a reward. At first he was given 700 euros. And then they sent money to the electronic wallet in cryptocurrency. Kuznetsov received instructions and reports through a secret Telegram chat.
Kuznetsova claims that he was recruited because of his involvement in a sect originating from Russia, the so-called «DEIR School.» It was after studying there that Kuznetsov was introduced to an FSB agent in Nice. And it was a person from this sect who later in Kharkiv brought the already recruited Kuznetsov together with his Russian curator.
Halyna Kryshtal visited Belarus even after the annexation of Crimea and the war in Eastern Ukraine in 2014, supposedly because of the dog breeding she was engaged in. In the city of Mogilev, near a veterinary clinic, she agreed to cooperate with the FSB of the Russian Federation, the investigation says, the newspaper writes.
In the autumn of 2021, Oleksandr Vikhlyayev, IT guy also went to cooperate with the Russian Federation — he was involved, in particular, as a liaison, who ensures the activities of other agents of the group by means of communication, transport, a conspiratorial apartment, organizes the ways of the group’s departure after completing the task.
Dmytro Kuznetsov, according to him, received a task from the special services of the Russian Federation under the guise of a blogger to travel through the cities of Ukraine (Kharkiv, Odesa, Truskavets, Lviv, Rakhiv, Ivano-Frankivsk) and record the location and current condition of buildings that have «national economic» and defense significance. The blogger openly posted the filmed materials on his Instagram page and thus transmitted the data. This did not arouse suspicion, because Kuznetsov has more than 30,000 followers on his Instagram page. Kuznetsov bought a DJI Mavic mini 2 quadcopter in France on October 25, 2021, and flew to Kyiv in November of the same year.
From November 10 to November 15, 2021, he photographed the bridges over the Dnipro River in Kyiv, their entrances, forks, Khreshchatyk streets, and others. After that, he came to Kharkiv and photographed the complex of Derzhprom buildings (attacked by a Russian missile attack in October 2024. On December 1, 2021, the agent went to Odessa and filmed the state of the Odessa sea trade port. From the end of December 2021 to February 21, 2022, he kept Western Ukraine and photographed objects in Truskavets, Lviv and Rakhiv.
The State Prosecution claims, based on the evidence received, that in early February 2022, the Russian special services ordered Kuznetsov to move to Ivano-Frankivsk, to a hotel near the airfield of the military unit. He chose a room from the window of which you could watch the events at the airfield.
The day before the full-scale invasion, he bought a bicycle. On the same day, Kuznetsov received his quadcopter from a technician with changed options: no restrictions on use in no-fly zones. And also took away two devices for simulating irradiation by air defense means.
For reference: some weapons can detect anti-aircraft vehicles through the signals they emit during active operation, and follow these signals to strike the anti-aircraft vehicles themselves to destroy them. The anti-aircraft radiation simulator could thus serve as a beacon-gunner for Russian missiles.
On the night of February 24, Kuznetsov walked to the airfield of the military unit, where he placed one of the technical means, and returned to the hotel. On the morning of February 24, Kuznetsov took a picture of the damage to the Ivano-Frankivsk airfield from the hotel window and published the picture on Instagram.
Already on February 25, he rode a bicycle in the direction of the city of Kolomyia. And around 5:00 p.m., near the village of Kolintsi Tlumatska OTG, he was exposed and detained by local residents, who handed him over to the law enforcement officers.
The investigation claims that Halyna Kryshtal was ordered to settle in the area of the landing course (glissade) of planes, in particular fighters of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and to photograph them, as well as to transmit the coordinates. Kryshtal had to pass on the obtained information through a third accomplice, a liaison officer of the agency group, Oleksandr Vikhlyayev.
That is why in 2021, Krystal found a house for rent in the area of the airfield glissade through the classifieds website. She agreed to rent the house starting from December 16, 2021. Vikhlyaev took Kryshtal to a rented house, giving detailed instructions on the way about their «common business». After her arrival, the woman received money from him — UAH 13,500.
During the pre-trial investigation, Krystal said that she took the photos and gave them to Vikhlyaev, but she allegedly did not know where they were sent in the future. She photographed the airspace and various state objects.
The teacher said that she was blackmailed and if she refused to cooperate, she was promised to hand over her contacts to persons who threatened to kill her back in 2006.
According to her, in 2006 she tried to sell her parents' plot of land in order to buy herself an apartment in Kyiv. A buyer was found, the documents were drawn up and she received a deposit. However, after talking with an acquaintance, the woman realized that she had set too low a price and decided to cancel the deal. Krystal, however, did not return the entire deposit to the buyer, and he eventually became nervous. Kryshtal added: she found out later that the buyer she refused was a criminal from Donetsk. In the end, she returned all the money from the deposit to him.
During a visit to Belarus in 2013, two unknown men approached her and said they knew about the story with the plot of land. So they said that they might need her services. She was supposed to take pictures, but they didn’t say why.
According to Krystal, she received the addresses of the objects from Vikhlyayev, and later sent the pictures to him. The woman was persuasive, as if she did not know that her photos could lead to trouble. She said she regretted her actions. The teacher, by the way, like Kuznetsov, studied for about three years at the «DEIR» school in Kyiv.
The investigation found 12 numbers of Russian mobile operators in Krystal’s mobile phone. Living in the village, she had unusual connections: every half hour, her phone was transferring data in the amount of 1,800 bytes.
Halyna Kryshtal, like Kuznetsov, also pleaded not guilty in court. She stated that she made everything up during the pre-trial investigation: both about the conspiracy and about the secret chats. She said that she was angry because she was put in custody.
According to the case file, Oleksandr Vikhlyayev passed the information he received from Kryshtal to an unidentified representative of the FSB of the Russian Federation.
His task was also to transport Kryshtal by car, and then to settle himself in the territory of the Zakarpattia region. He was also supposed to ensure the illegal crossing of the border of Ukraine to the territory of Western Europe for members of the group after completing the task.
The investigation believes that on February 25, 2022, Vikhlyayev had a control meeting with Kryshtal, giving instructions on the route of departure after completing the task.
Later, Vikhlyaev found and rented a house in the village of Verkhni Remety, Berehiv district. From Transcarpathia, he intended to flee abroad to ensure the escape of his accomplices. However, in March 2022, he was detained by Zakarpattia law enforcement officers.
Oleksandr Vikhlyaev told the court that he works in the IT field. He also pleaded not guilty, confirming only that he knew Krystal. According to him, the teacher slandered him about ordering photos of certain objects.
The court eventually found all three defendants guilty of treason, sentencing each of them to 13 years in prison with confiscation of property.
In the verdict, the court noted, among other things, that the facts of the meetings of the three defendants were proven by information from mobile operators, the presence of their mobile devices in the range of the same or adjacent base stations at the same time. Both the defense and the prosecution can file appeals against this court decision.
