Photo by ssu.gov.ua

Ukraine’s intelligence agency, the SBU, said on Friday it exposed the Russian spy ring plotting to launch a media center for disinformation campaigns in Ukraine.

Accordng to the investigation, the media center  was set up to spread ‘Russian propaganda’ narratives through Telegram channels, online TV and raidio apps, targeting  people in southern east of Ukraine

The SBU detained two overtly pro-Russian Kyiv residents who earlier caught the eye of law-enforcement. One of the collaborators was found spying on the Ukrainian troops movements in Kyiv and sending the information to the Russian intelligence operatives.

The man soon recruited his friend for running an online media outlet called Tavriya  – it was planned to have regional offices across Ukraine and be supervised from occupied Crimea.

The SBU operatives arrested the two men behind it and seized their computers and mobile phones that have evidence of their illegal activities.