Alleged Russian spies targeted Ukrainian soldiers at US base, UK court hears

An alleged Russian spy ring targeted Ukrainian soldiers at a US military base in Germany who were believed to be training to use a crucial air defense system to defend against Russia's invasion, British prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Bulgarian nationals Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, are accused of being part of a sophisticated spying network run by a Russian agent named Jan Marsalek, which planned six operations from Britain.

Prosecutors say the trio - along with Orlin Roussev and Bizer Dzhambazov, who have admitted being part of the conspiracy – carried out surveillance of journalists and planned to stage a fake protest outside the Kazakh embassy in London.

The trio is accused of acting under the direction of Roussev, who was receiving instructions from Marsalek, an Austrian national who used the false name Rupert Ticz and was a chief operating officer of collapsed payments company Wirecard.

Ivanova, Gaberova, and Ivanchev deny the accusations and are standing trial at London's Old Bailey court.

Prosecutor Alison Morgan told the jury on Tuesday that in late 2022, Marsalek tasked Roussev with surveilling a US military base in Stuttgart, Germany, though the operation was cut short after the defendants were arrested.

Allegedly targeted Ukrainian troops, journalists, and dissidents

Morgan said Marsalek believed the base was being used to train Ukrainian forces to use the Patriot air defense system.

The surveillance was carried out in October and November 2022 "at an absolutely crucial time in terms of Russia's invasion of Ukraine," she said.

Ivanova traveled to Germany from London, allegedly with a plan to conduct surveillance from outside the base using an IMSI catcher, which allows users to track a target's mobile phone and pinpoint their location.

Morgan said that information could then have been used to track soldiers deployed to use surface-to-air missiles in Ukraine.

"This could not be more serious in terms of the type of information that they were trying to gather to allow people to know exactly where Ukrainian soldiers with this type of deployment might be in the future," she said.

The prosecutor has previously told the jury that members of the alleged spy ring had conducted surveillance on Christo Grozev, who works for the Bellingcat news outlet, Roman Dobrokhotov, editor-in-chief of independent media outlet The Insider, and Russian dissident Kiril Kachur.

Ivanova, Gaberova, and Ivanchev deny a conspiracy charge to gather information useful to an enemy between August 2020 and February 2023. Ivanova also denies possessing false identity documents.

Their trial is expected to last until February.