DRAMATIC footage shows the moment Ukraine unmasked a top-level traitor today – revealing he spied on senior government figures for Vladimir Putin.
Colonel Dmytro Koziura – powerful anti-terrorist chief at Ukraine’s SBU Security Service – is alleged to have working undercover for Russia.
The “mole” was dramatically detained in person and clapped in handcuffs by his SBU boss Lt-Gen Vasyl Maliuk.
Maliuk led a lengthy operation to prove the traitor’s guilt, keeping Putin’s top target President Volodymyr Zelensky informed of every step, officials revealed yesterday.
The burly accused FSB agent – aged in his 50s – was pictured with his hands cuffed behind his back with signs of facial cuts and bruises.
He was said to have become particularly close to the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko – the former world heavyweight boxing champion.
Koziura’s treachery is a crushing humiliation to the Ukrainian government – which has been sharing secrets with Western allies since Russia invaded three years ago.
But Putin will also have been damaged because the Ukrainians have known he was betraying them for months.
And Zelensky’s own spy chiefs had been feeding him false information to send to his Kremlin masters.
A video showed Koziura’s arrest, and clips alleged to show him passing information electronically to Moscow were also released.
Details of the scandal emerged after Zelensky told The Sun of attempts to kill him inside his presidential office at the start of the war.
The hero president was said to have been targeted after Koziura was recruited but before he worked actively for Moscow according to an SBU timetable of his activities.
SBU boss Maliuk did not spell out the specific damage caused to Ukraine by secret data allegedly passed by the colonel to Moscow.
But 14 “proven” cases of Koziura passing classified information to the enemy were identified before the dramatic high-profile arrest..
It also emerged that Putin’s FSB spymasters wanted Koziura to provide intelligence in Ukrainian knowledge of Russian military movements on the frontline.
Moscow was also said to have tasked him with obtaining secret information on the armaments, infrastructure and the damage caused by Russian missile attacks.
An SBU dossier also accuses Koziura’s “father and mother, who justify Russian aggression, praise Putin and, judging by audio intercepts, know about their son’s work in the FSB”.
His parents also face charges.
Details shared yesterday revealed Koziura was recruited in 2018 in Vienna, but it was only in December that he was ordered by Moscow to work actively.
His FSB handler was named Yuriy Shatalov and he was said to have been issued with a special mobile phone, WiFi router and SIM card.
He faces life imprisonment if convicted and further moles were being hunted last night.
SBU chief Maliuk said: “The cleansing of our service continues.”
