Two Russian men secretly working for Ukraine's intelligence services have given rare accounts of operations they claim to have been involved with, that have targeted military assets and personnel inside Russia. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing BBC News.
One of the men, whom we are calling Ivan, claims to have played a role from Russia in Ukrainian drone attacks on strategic bombers and munitions factories on his home soil. He features in a BBC World Service documentary about the shadowy world of Russian saboteurs. The documentary, by independent Polish journalist Marcin Mamon, also features a man we are calling Foma, a Russian living in exile in Poland.
Foma runs a network of undercover volunteers in Russia, that surveils high-level officers that the GUR - Ukraine's military intelligence service - is considering targeting, he says. He stresses they are never involved in the attacks themselves. He was also tight-lipped about who they were surveilling, but after Lt Gen Fanil Sarvarov was assassinated in December last year in Moscow, Foma admitted he had provided the Ukrainians with intelligence on him. Sarvarov was killed by an explosive device hidden under his car, according to previous reports.
There have been previous media reports of Russian sabotage groups, but it is rare to get access to someone operating on the ground, like Ivan, explaining alleged activities. The GUR has confirmed that Ivan and Foma are both working for the agency. But it also has acknowledged that it cannot know the full picture. When Ivan's handler was pressed on whether he could be trusted, the handler replied: "I'm not sure of anyone, except myself."
And both the GUR and the men are cautious about how much detail they share, making it impossible to verify the activities the men claim to have carried out. The broad tactics Ivan and Foma describe, however, have been acknowledged by the Ukrainian authorities. Kyiv has spoken of its strategy of co-ordinated drone attacks on what it claims are legitimate targets inside Russia, and has acknowledged it uses secret agents for this.
There have also been several political assassinations in Russia since the start of the war. As a matter of policy, Ukraine never officially admits or claims responsibility for targeted attacks, though a Ukrainian intelligence officer has previously admitted to the BBC it was behind the killing of senior military figure Lt Gen Igor Kirillov in December 2024.
It is difficult to confirm how many Russians are doing this kind of work for Ukraine. According to Foma, they number about 300-500, though this is impossible to verify.
Ivan and Foma say they are both opposed not just to Russia's war in Ukraine, but to President Vladimir Putin's regime - and believe his political future depends on the war's outcome. "At the moment... I think the [Putin] regime might fall if they lose the war… Through our actions... we are trying to speed this up," Ivan says.
His work, he told Mamon, involved surveilling military sites, and locating places to hide drone components, in preparation for potential attacks on Russian assets. "When these [drone] components are combined… it turns out a formidable weapon, which with a single blow can destroy an object that costs many, many millions of dollars," Ivan said. He sent Mamon a video which showed him apparently hiding explosives near a Russian military airfield. If he had been caught, he would have been charged with terrorism, and jailed for decades.
Foma's work is different - he operates remotely, training his volunteers in Russia, online. Mamon watched him conducting one such tutorial - on how to trail a senior military official marked for surveillance. "You will get a file... from me or a colleague… with the proposed target. The file will contain [the target's] photo, his data, his details, date of birth, age, and a description of him. There'll be information on his car, if he has one. When you go to the target, don't take a phone," he told his volunteers.
Foma was once part of the Russian elite, so he claims to have a unique set of contacts and constant flow of insider information. He showed Mamon on his laptop how he mapped military targets. "This shows a database... the location of storage warehouses, and military units. Where generals live… Where the pilots of strategic bombers who shell Ukraine live."