Ukraine detains alleged FSB agent recruited via TikTok for spying on military
Ukraine’s security service (SBU) detained a woman accused of spying for Russia after allegedly being recruited through TikTok, the agency said on Monday.
The 43-year-old woman, a local employee of a coal mining company in the Ukrainian Donetsk region, was reportedly tasked with identifying and photographing the positions of Ukrainian forces near the front-line town of Pokrovsk — currently one of the most active combat zones.
According to the SBU, intelligence officers with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) noticed the woman’s TikTok livestreams and later recruited her. She allegedly switched to secure messaging platforms to communicate with the FSB.
The suspect allegedly scouted areas near her hometown, attempting to locate Ukrainian troops and artillery positions. The SBU said it arrested the woman at a checkpoint and seized her mobile phone used to photograph military sites and communicate with the FSB.
The suspect, a resident of Myrnohrad — a town regularly shelled by Russian forces — chose to stay in the area to carry out her mission while evacuating her two children to safer regions of Ukraine, according to the investigation.
She has been charged with high treason under martial law and faces life imprisonment with confiscation of property.
This is not the first time Ukraine has uncovered espionage operations tied to social media. Local law enforcement previously warned that Russian intelligence services are using messaging apps and online forums to recruit Ukrainian citizens for terrorist attacks, promising quick payoffs.
Earlier in December, the SBU uncovered a suspected Russian espionage campaign involving the recruitment of Ukrainian teenagers for criminal activities disguised as “quest games.”
In September, the SBU detained a local resident suspected of setting up surveillance cameras near critical infrastructure, allegedly enabling Russian intelligence to monitor these sites. The individual was reportedly recruited by Russia’s military intelligence service (GRU) via Telegram, lured by promises of “easy” money.
Daryna Antoniuk
is a reporter for Recorded Future News based in Ukraine. She writes about cybersecurity startups, cyberattacks in Eastern Europe and the state of the cyberwar between Ukraine and Russia. She previously was a tech reporter for Forbes Ukraine. Her work has also been published at Sifted, The Kyiv Independent and The Kyiv Post.