Flowers and candles at the spot where Ukrainian former MP Iryna Farion was shot in Lviv, Ukraine, 20 July 2024. Photo: EPA / MYKOLA TYS
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has taken a British national into custody after a sting operation revealed him to be conducting espionage and sabotage activities on Ukrainian soil on behalf of Russian intelligence, independent news outlet Ukrainska Pravda (UP) reported on Tuesday.
A special operation carried out jointly with UK intelligence agencies in October exposed Ross David Cutmore, a military instructor engaged in training Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) personnel, as being a Russian agent, UP reported, citing a source in the SBU.
According to the source, Cutmore, who served with the UK Armed Forces and had been deployed to the Middle East, arrived in Ukraine in 2024 to work as a military instructor for the AFU.
Investigators believe that Cutmore was responsible for bringing weapons into Ukraine that were subsequently used “to conduct targeted killings” in the country, including those of two high-profile nationalist politicians, Iryna Farion and Andriy Parubiy.
A controversial former deputy in Ukraine’s parliament who advocated for the use of the Ukrainian language, Farion died after being shot outside her home in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv in July 2024. She had previously drawn criticism for saying that she considered Russian-speaking members of the AFU to be Russian, not Ukrainian.
Likewise, the former chairman of the Ukrainian parliament, Andriy Parubiy, was shot dead in Lviv in August. Parubiy was one of the organisers of the 2014 Euromaidan protests against then-president Viktor Yanukovych, and headed the Maidan Self-Defence Unit formed at the height of the demonstrations. Arrests were made after both assassinations.
