A Russian GRU officer coordinated preparations for missile and drone attacks on the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast in January 2026 and recruited a 17-year-old Ukrainian girl to help direct strikes on the Burshtyn thermal power plant, Ukraine’s SBU Security Service said on April 17.
The SBU identified the officer as Marat Tsevelev, a lieutenant colonel in Russian military intelligence, better known as the GRU.
Russia had already launched a large-scale missile and drone attack on Burshtyn in late October 2025 and, according to the SBU, was preparing new strikes in the winter of 2026. To help direct those attacks, Tsevelev recruited the teenager after she searched for “quick money” on Telegram channels.
Following his instructions, she first scouted the area around the Burshtyn thermal power plant and a key electrical substation. She was then supposed to photograph and film the site, mark its geolocation and send the material to her “handler.”
Early in 2026, the SBU detained the girl in Ivano-Frankivsk while she was photographing a military site. Investigators seized her smartphone, which they said contained evidence of cooperation with Russian intelligence.
According to the case file, Tsevelev serves in the 317th Naval Special Operations Center of Russia’s GRU in occupied Sevastopol. The unit uses agent networks to gather intelligence for missile and bomb strikes in Ukraine from sea-, air- and ground-based platforms.
Based on the evidence collected, SBU investigators formally named Tsevelev as a suspect in absentia under Part 1 of Article 114 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code — espionage.
The indictment against the girl he recruited has been sent to court under Part 2 of Article 111 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code — high treason committed under martial law.
Early on Oct. 30, 2025, Russia launched a massive combined strike on Ukraine, mainly targeting energy infrastructure. It used Kinzhal and Kalibr missiles, air-launched cruise missiles fired from Tu bombers, and Shahed drones. Zaporizhzhya and Burshtyn in the Ivano-Frankivsk region came under attack for several hours, while western regions including Khmelnytskyi, Lviv, Vinnytsia and Ternopil were also hit.
In February 2026, the SBU said it had detained in Ivano-Frankivsk a local technical college graduate who helped Russians prepare another strike on the Burshtyn thermal power plant.
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