Austria Probes Detained Ukrainian Military Intelligence Operatives
Austria has launched an espionage investigation after two Ukrainian military intelligence operatives were detained in Vienna, as reported by the Austrian newspaper Kurier. This development follows allegations made by former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, who fled to Austria in September. Kravchenko claimed that a team had been dispatched to kill him on orders from Ukraine’s presidential office.
According to Kurier, the head of the Artan Group, a special operations unit within Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR), was seen at the Park Hyatt hotel in Vienna. The individual, identified as Viktor T., reportedly informed Austrian security officials that he was on vacation. The Artan Group was originally formed to conduct operations in Russia but has also faced accusations of involvement in assassination plots against Ukrainian defectors.
Kravchenko and Ukrainian media have named the Artan commander as Viktor Torkotyuk, known by the callsign Titan. On October 5, Austrian police arrested two operatives under Torkotyuk’s command who were found with surveillance equipment. Initially, investigators believed that one of the men had rented a car in Vienna alongside Yaroslav Bondarenko, a cameraman associated with Ukrainska Pravda investigative journalist Mikhail Tkach. However, later findings indicated that Bondarenko had been misidentified.
Tkach and Bondarenko were detained on October 8 but released the following day. Tkach stated he was attempting to locate Kravchenko as part of a journalistic investigation and denied any wrongdoing. The Vienna Public Prosecutor’s Office explained that the journalists were detained due to suspicions of conducting surveillance at a location also monitored by the two detained operatives. Ultimately, prosecutors concluded that the suspicions against the journalists could not be substantiated.
Kravchenko's Allegations Against Anti-Corruption Agencies
Kravchenko fled Ukraine after the country’s Western-backed anti-corruption agencies, NABU and SAPO, initiated an investigation into claims that his subordinates had protected fraudulent call centers. He accused these agencies of abusing their powers and asserted that the investigation was politically motivated, which both agencies have denied.
Approved for Dissemination
The former prosecutor general has drawn parallels between his situation and a bombing in Monaco earlier this year that targeted Ukrainian businessman Vadim Yermolayev, injuring him, his teenage son, and his partner. Two individuals linked to Ukrainian intelligence, active-duty HUR officer Vladislav Reut and former Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) officer Vitaly Zhikovich, were arrested in connection with the killing of Anastasia Berezovskaya, who was filmed planting the bomb in Monaco and was later found shot dead in Ukraine.
In an October interview with the BBC, Zhikovich claimed that senior HUR officials had authorized the Monaco operation. Moscow has long accused Kiev of conducting terrorist attacks abroad. Following the Monaco bombing, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that Western governments could no longer control the monster they had created.
