Ukraine's counterintelligence of a spy agency has detained a young woman accused of helping Russia prepare an air strike meant to leave Poltava—a city in central Ukraine—without power, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said. Investigators say the student mapped the city's energy sites in Poltava and the surrounding area and filmed Ukrainian air-defense units for Russian handlers before any strike could land. She now sits in custody and faces life imprisonment with confiscation of property.

A student lured by "easy money"

The suspect is a student at a local university in Poltava Oblast, the SBU reported. She came to the attention of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) while hunting for easy money in Telegram channels, according to the agency. After recruiting her, her handlers set her to work in her own hometown.

Mapping the grid, filming the defenses

Under the guise of walks, she moved through the city and surrounding area to fix the locations of energy facilities that feed the oblast center and nearby districts. Those were the sites Russia was preparing to hit from the air. She also rode around Poltava Oblast by taxi, taking photos and video of Ukrainian air-defense units. Officers say they exposed her in advance and detained her before any strike. During a search, they seized smartphones and computer equipment holding evidence of her work for the enemy.

Investigators served her a suspicion notice under Part 2 of Article 111 of Ukraine's Criminal Code, which covers high treason committed under martial law. She is being held without the right to bail. She faces life imprisonment with confiscation of property.

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What came before

Russia keeps leaning on Ukrainians recruited online to scout for its strikes, and Ukraine's security service reports such arrests regularly. Days earlier, officers detained another suspect in Kharkiv Oblast, accused of planting hidden cameras to guide Russian attacks. The kind of energy sites she scouted have sat at the center of Russia's long campaign against Ukraine's power grid, which has forced blackouts through successive winters.

A Ukrainian court has convicted a man of treason for building homemade bombs intended for attacks in Zaporizhzhia, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said. Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU, reportedly picked him out of Telegram channels where he was hunting for easy earnings. The devices were still meant to go into caches when officers took him.

Russia recruited him from a chat channel

SBU officers detained the man in March 2025. The investigation established that the assignment for Russia went to a local resident struggling with drug addiction. Russian services noticed him while he was looking for easy earnings in Telegram channels, and the offer of side work turned into an order to build weapons, the security agency said.

The SBU described what followed in its statement. 

"In exchange for the promise of 'quick' side earnings, the agent began assembling improvised explosive devices, reinforcing them with metal nuts and bolts for greater destructive effect. For this, on the instructions of the Russians, he bought chemical components, construction materials, and other elements for producing bombs at home."

Recruitment through job ads in messaging apps has run through case after case in Ukraine, including plots against soldiers in several cities.

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Officers searching him turned up a canister of solvent, other chemical components, and shrapnel elements set aside for building the devices. Officers also seized the mobile phones he used to stay in touch with his Russian contact.

Two tasks: bombs in caches and leaflets

He was to hide the finished devices in caches inside Zaporizhzhia and on its outskirts, the SBU said. Then he was to send the coordinates to his handler in Russia. His handler also assigned him information work for Russia. He pasted provocative leaflets around the city, aimed at unsettling the internal situation across southern Ukraine, the SBU noted.

The court found him guilty under Part 2 of Article 111 of Ukraine's Criminal Code, which covers high treason committed under martial law. It sentenced him to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property.