Ukraine’s Security Services (SBU) reported via its Telegram channel on Thursday that it had detained a traitor from within Ukraine’s Armed Forces (AFU) who was preparing to assist a Russian attack on a Neptune anti-ship system covering part of the Black Sea.
The operation to identify and capture the “mole” was carried out by the SBU’s military counterintelligence department, assisted by the AFU Commander-in-Chief and the commander of Ukraine’s naval forces.
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According to the report, a 33-year-old serviceman serving in a unit charged with protecting the Neptune had been recruited by Russia’s military intelligence directorate (GRU) after he had posted pro-Moscow comments on social media.
His handler had tasked the traitor to provide geolocated data of the positioning of the Neptunes in unidentified southern region locations, along with training centers, where he had previously undergone military training. This information would then be used in combined cruise missile and kamikaze drone strikes – for which he was assured he would receive advance notice allowing him to move to a “safe area.”
The SBU moved after having identified the turncoat, surveillance confirmed his spying activity and caught him in the act of preparing the required intelligence report for his Russian contacts. The report said that evidence of his actions was recovered from a mobile phone in his possession at the time of his arrest.
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According to an SBU source, the incident was just one of multiple attempts by Russian forces to “hunt down” Ukraine’s Neptune and other missile system locations
The R-360 Neptune is a modernized version of the Soviet-era Kh-35 system. It is an all-weather subsonic cruise missile with all-weather capabilities developed by the Kyiv-based Luch Design Bureau in Kyiv as an anti-ship missile with a range of over 200 kilometers (125 miles).
The missile was used to sink the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s flagship – the cruiser Moskva in April 2022.
Following Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion, it is reported that Ukraine has developed variants to be used for land attack with a range approaching 1,000 kilometers (600 plus miles).