A Ukrainian court has handed a life sentence to a former senior officer of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) for spying for Russia, in one of the most damaging insider espionage cases to surface since Russia's full-scale invasion.
The conviction
A court in Kyiv convicted Colonel Dmytro Koziura, the former head of staff of the SBU's Antiterrorist Center, of high treason committed under martial law and sentenced him to life imprisonment with confiscation of property, the Kyiv Independent reported. Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko said the officer had agreed to gather and pass defense information, including state secrets, to Russian special services in return for money, Interfax Ukraine reported. It was not clear whether Koziura denied the charges or intends to appeal.
What he is accused of passing
According to Ukrainian prosecutors and the SBU, Koziura was recruited by Russia's FSB during a visit to Vienna in 2018 and continued to cooperate after the 2022 invasion. They say he relayed sensitive material including information on the effects of Russian missile strikes on Kyiv, the locations of SBU units, plans to bolster air defenses around critical infrastructure, and personal details of senior Ukrainian officials, UNN reported. The amount he was allegedly paid was not published.
How he was caught
The SBU said it detained Koziura in February 2025 after a counterintelligence operation, during which Ukrainian officers fed his Russian handlers disinformation before moving to arrest him. The agency framed the case as evidence both of Russia's persistent efforts to penetrate Ukrainian institutions and of its own ability to detect them.
The wider picture
Ukraine has prosecuted large numbers of espionage, treason and collaboration cases since 2022, ranging from low-level informants to officials with significant access. The SBU's own ranks have not been exempt: its leadership was overhauled early in the war amid concerns about reliability. The Koziura case underscores how high the stakes of such breaches can be in wartime — and how far inside the security services Russia has sought to reach.
