Ukrainian Air Force Officer Arrested For Allegedly Leaking West Jet Information To Russia

President Volodymyr Zelensky is with Ukrainian F-16 fighter jets. (Source: President.gov.ua)

JAKARTA - Ukraine's domestic security agency detained the country's air force officer on charges of spying for Russia by leaking the location of Ukraine's F-16 and Mirage 2000 fighter jets, officials said on Wednesday.

The unnamed officer is an aviation instructor with the rank of major, accused of helping Russia carry out airstrikes by giving coordinates and suggesting attack tactics, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said in a statement.

"In particular, the enemy's priority targets are airports that are the bases for F-16, Mirage 2000, and Su-24 fighter jets," he said.

The F-16 is made in the US and Mirage is made in France, both of which are given by Western allies to Ukraine. Meanwhile, Su-24 is a fighter jet from the Soviet era.

"The agency collected coordinates on the locations of these planes, schedules, and sequences of their departures," the official said.

Furthermore, SBU said the suspect had also provided data on Ukrainian air force personnel and combat tactics to Russian military intelligence.

Moscow routinely targets airfields and military bases across Ukraine, especially areas believed to be the locations of weapons provided by the West such as F-16 or Mirage jets.

Both aircraft are critical to strengthening Ukraine's defenses against Russia's ever-increasing airstrikes and rapid battlefield progress in Moscow's three-and-a-half-year full-scale invasion.

Separately, this month's SBU detained two Chinese nationals on suspicion of spying on Ukraine's Neptune anti-ship missile program, an important part of Kyiv's growing domestic weapons industry.