Russian agent who set fires in Kyiv receives 15-year prison sentence
He was one more disposable recruit in Russia's Telegram sabotage campaign — hired for two arson jobs, then left to face the court alone.
A Kyiv court sentenced an unemployed Ukrainian man to 15 years in prison and ordered the confiscation of his property on August 13, 2025, for carrying out arson attacks on behalf of Russian intelligence, according to Ukraine's Security Service (SBU). The man was lured with promises of easy money via Telegram channels and orchestrated two arson incidents in Kyiv before fleeing to Odesa.
Russian intelligence frequently recruits Ukrainians through Telegram for acts of arson and sabotage, treating these individuals as disposable operatives who are paid for a single task and abandoned once captured. The convicted agent initially ignited a railway signaling system relay cabinet to disrupt freight logistics, including supplies heading toward areas near the frontlines.
He subsequently burned a volunteer's SUV that was being utilized to deliver humanitarian aid and evacuate civilians from regions impacted by Russia's military conflict. The Russian agent committed these acts under the cover of darkness, using a flammable concoction and recording each occurrence on his mobile phone before transmitting the footage to his Russian handler.
He was apprehended in Odesa in July 2025, having attempted to conceal himself after perpetrating the attacks. Evidence of his collaboration with Russia was discovered on his confiscated phone. The court found him guilty on two charges — sabotage committed under martial law and intentional destruction of property through arson — both actions executed as part of a group acting on a prior conspiracy.
He was subsequently sentenced to 15 years in prison with the forfeiture of his assets. This case follows several analogous convictions. In May 2025, an agent received a 15-year sentence for setting ablaze a railway relay cabinet near a Dnipro station in an effort to disrupt logistics at the frontlines. The SBU stated that the unemployed local, recruited through Telegram, documented the arson and reported it to his handler before being apprehended before executing a planned series of attacks on Kyiv's pivotal infrastructure.
In June 2026, another agent was sentenced to 15 years for preparing to burn an electrical substation in Kropyvnytskyi. In July 2026, an SBU report indicated that a GRU agent in Zaporizhzhia faced a 15-year sentence for preparing explosives for Russian-organized attacks.
Written by urgent.news from Euromaidan Press's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
