The tactic was used to leverage intel from a regional deputy minister, according to the Russian agency
FILE PHOTO: A building of the Emergency Situations Ministry of the DPR. © Press Service of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation / Sputnik
A Ukrainian plot to extract classified information from a Russian official by holding his wife hostage has been thwarted by the Federal Security Service (FSB), the agency’s regional branch in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has claimed.
The woman, named Yelena Slabunova, went to the Kiev-controlled city of Kharkov in early March to arrange the funeral of her mother, a video statement published by Russia’s TASS news agency on Thursday said. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) then arrested her.
“Threatening her with physical violence, SBU agents were pressuring [husband] Dmitry Kostyamin to disclose classified information… SBU employees were deceived into releasing Slabunova” and allowing her to return to Donetsk, the FSB said, without providing details on how the deception was conducted.
The Russian law enforcement agency noted that Ukrainian agents resorted to “intimidation and blackmail” in their attempt to recruit Russian officials and “were not bound by any moral restrictions”.
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Kostyamin serves as first deputy minister in the DPR emergencies ministry. Slabunova, according to FSB, is a theater actress. In 2018 local media mentioned a Yelena Slabunova, from a drama theater in Donetsk, as being among several recipients of a government award for artistic achievement.
