Court sentences Ochakiv resident who leaked data on Ukrainian Armed Forces to pro-Russian blogger Lebedev to 8 years in prison

A resident of Ochakiv was sentenced to 8 years in prison for passing on the coordinates of the cities where the Armed Forces are deployed. She transmitted the data through the curator of the so-called «underground», Sergei Lebedev, known under the pseudonym «Lokhmatyi».

This is stated in the verdict of the Mykolaiv District Court, according to NikVesti.

According to the investigation, the woman, being pro-Russian, in June 2024, in the Telegram messenger, where she had an account under the nickname «GalactikaZ», began a correspondence with a user she addressed as «Serezha».

The next day, she sent him the coordinates of the location of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The message contained a screenshot from the mapping service «Yandex Maps», where she personally marked the location of the military with the numbers «1» and sent the message:

«Serezha, greetings again. So here it is: number 1 is the territory of the BTK (former torpedo boat base), and we arrived at number 2 (I'll send you a photo). This is a five-storey residential building. The guys missed a little bit. There is destruction, of course, but no victims, thank God,» the text of the verdict reads.

The woman continued to distribute screenshots from «Yandex Maps», where she marked objects with her own numbers. In her messages, she specified the location of military facilities and the consequences of the shelling.

«Number 1, the territory of the base. And under number 2, a private house, where it hit the kitchen. There were no casualties, only destruction. But it was impossible to take a photo, there were a lot of people moving around... By the way, there is also a building of the Tax Inspectorate here, in the basement there are devils», she reports in her messages.

In early July, the accused sent them information about the military at the following facilities in the city: the tourist base «Ochakiv» and «Dynamo», two sanatoriums and a school.

The case file also states that in public Telegram chats, she justified the actions of the Russian military and armed aggression against Ukraine.

«Yes, it's scary to think about, it's a war. But if there had been no 24 February 2022, civilians would have died in large numbers in Russia because the Ukrofascists were preparing for an invasion... God's blessings to the Russian army on the way to victory in the name of the Motherland. Work hard, brothers. Take care, dear comrades, of yourselves and your loved ones, do not lose heart, keep our ranks strong and everything will be Russia», she wrote.

At the trial, the defendant fully pleaded guilty to the alleged crime and expressed sincere remorse, assuring that she would not do it now. The court sentenced her to 8 years in prison.

According to the context of the messages and the name she uses in her messages, it is most likely that she used the Telegram channel «Lokhmatyi Z Nikolaev», owned by Sergey Lebedev, who worked for the FSS as a «freelance» journalist for the Moscow-based news agency «RIA Novosti».

It is known that Sergei Lebedev used to live in Mykolaiv. He currently lives in the occupied part of Ukraine. In his channel, he collects and transmits information to the Russian occupiers for future shelling, in particular of Mykolaiv.

To do this, he established contacts with locals who were willing to pass on information to him. The SBU has repeatedly identified these people.

For example, one of the FSS agents who worked for «Lokhmatyi» collected intelligence by spying on airfields in Mykolaiv region.

In May 2023, the SSU served him with a notice of suspicion in absentia. Later in October, the SBU in Mykolaiv region exposed a Russian agent network of 13 locals working for the FSS through a «liaison». One of them was pro-Kremlin blogger Serhii Lebedev.

In July 2024, he was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison.