He doesn’t declare to be Russia’s brightest spy.
Alexsander had actually needed the job, although. He was born in Ukraine however believed in Russia. And it was onerous getting by on his shifts at McDonald’s. So when two Russian operatives approached him with the supply of a piecework spying gig, he jumped.
He was in France on the time, he stated. The Russians needed compromising materials on a Western authorities official. A few of what Alexsander did was actual discipline espionage, like seeing the place the official lived. Quite a bit was Google searches. Alexsander didn’t have a lot want for disguises.
“I had a pair of black sun shades, however I not often wore them. Solely when the solar was shining,” he stated wryly.
Alexsander’s work modified when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. He joined a Fb group for foreigners enlisting within the Ukrainian Military. He gained different members’ belief. On journeys to Ukraine, he reported to Russia the placement of Ukrainian forces, their deliberate assault operations and their private data. His actions, he stated, led to troopers’ deaths.
Then all of it caught up with him.
Driving by means of northern Ukraine, Alexsander was stopped at a checkpoint. A guard requested to see his telephone. He had forgotten to delete a message to his Russian boss.
“I’m not saying I’m an excellent spy,” Alexsander advised me. “I obtained caught.”
I met Alexsander on a shiny summer season day in a gathering room of Jail Colony No. 122 in central Ukraine, the place he’ll stay for the foreseeable future after pleading responsible in a Ukrainian court docket to the fees in opposition to him, together with excessive treason.
It’s unimaginable to corroborate all the things he advised me, although elements of his story may very well be confirmed by means of Ukrainian court docket paperwork and interviews with Ukrainian officers.
I had obtained a name from a shadowy contact saying that Alexsander was open to speaking. The Ukrainian authorities has organized all through the battle for journalists to speak to Russian prisoners. This, nevertheless, can be my first time knowingly assembly a Russian spy.
Alexsander, 42, wore a worn-out grey baseball cap, sweatpants and a tracksuit jacket with white stripes alongside the sleeves. He seemed straight into my eyes with a playful but penetrating stare. He leaned again leisurely in his chair, oozing self-confidence. Every now and then, he smiled at a army officer who was within the room for safety causes.
I needed to be sure that Alexsander knew what he was doing in deciding to sit down down with me. “Do you understand,” I requested, “that what you inform me will probably be revealed in an article and that it’s going to not essentially be a constructive portrait of you?”
The final half appeared to shock him. “Why is that?” he answered.
Alexsander is happy with being a Russian spy. So far as I might inform, he simply needed the world to know his story, although he stated he didn’t need his final identify revealed to guard his household. He stored asking me if I used to be actually from The New York Instances. Perhaps Russia would keep in mind him, he stated, and ask that he be included in a prisoner change.
There are 2,570 spies for Russia in Ukrainian prisons, in keeping with Yevhen Pikalov, the deputy justice minister in Ukraine. Ninety-nine % are Ukrainian residents. Alexsander, who moved to Israel as a younger little one, is each Ukrainian and Israeli. He’s the one such spy imprisoned in Ukraine, Mr. Pikalov stated.
Spies nonetheless play an vital position even because the battle turns into outlined by robotic eyes within the sky. Each side have extra weapons than ever. Old school human spying helps them discover targets.
There are a couple of classes of spies, stated Viktor Yahun, a former deputy chairman of Ukraine’s most important home safety company.
High-level ones are rigorously managed and infrequently uncovered, he stated. Catching one each six months counts as success.
Then there are lower-level spies recruited for cash. Ukraine captures about 120 of these a 12 months, in keeping with Mr. Yahun.
These spies are a bit just like the drones that each international locations deploy — cheap to develop and produced in bulk. They’re typically juvenile delinquents, drunks or disgruntled troopers recruited on-line for small sums, stated Sean Wiswesser, a former C.I.A. station chief who spent a lot of his profession working within the former Soviet Union.
Alexsander appeared to belong to a center class. He appeared motivated by ideology, a supporter of Russia’s effort to manage Ukraine and restore Moscow’s energy and affect in Japanese Europe. Not more than a dozen such brokers are caught annually.
However in the end, like all however essentially the most invaluable spies, they, too, are expendable, Mr. Wiswesser stated.
Alexsander stated he had served within the Israeli Military and left in 2011. He refused to explain the work he did earlier than the 2 Russians approached him in France.
The Israeli Embassy in Ukraine and the Israeli protection and international affairs ministries in Jerusalem didn’t reply requests for touch upon Alexsander.
The Russians, he stated, proceeded slowly with him. The primary time they interviewed him, they requested solely easy questions, observing his conduct and making an attempt to find out his motivation.
“I advised them my ideology,” he stated. “To begin with, to work on the aspect of reality. Russia is the reality for me. So, yeah, I rely myself, so to say, a part of the Russian world.”
Although he was born in Ukraine, most of his household reside in Russia. He stated he felt alienated whereas residing in Israel and in Western Europe, and needed to return to his roots. Russian intelligence businesses recruit extensively within the Russian exile neighborhood, consultants say.
In his early work in Europe, Alexsander was assigned to dig up dust on a enterprise chief. The person turned out to be squeaky clear. He declared each penny he earned to the tax authorities, by no means cheated on his spouse and was all the time residence for dinner, Alexsander discovered.
“I’ll let you know, actually, these persons are annoying,” Alexsander stated.
Nonetheless, the pay was good, he stated: about 5,000 euros a month, roughly $5,700.
When Russia began its full-scale battle in opposition to Ukraine, Alexsander wrote in on-line discussion groups for international fighters that he needed to affix the Ukrainian army. He by no means did, however after befriending the foreigners, he traveled to Ukraine to satisfy with them. He stated he gave them recommendation, together with on easy methods to deal with issues with their commanders.
Alexsander despatched to Russia no matter he might glean from the troopers and tried to thwart their efforts. A few of his work may very well be somewhat elaborate.
In France, he stated, he had baited a few French would-be fighters into inflicting a automotive accident that obtained them arrested and foiled their plans to affix the Ukrainian Military.
He stored at his assigned duties for greater than two years, till Sept. 10, 2024. On that day, Alexsander loaded his grey Citroën with a field of pistol ammunition and set off towards the Russian border within the northern Ukrainian area of Kharkiv. His aim was to trick international fighters into participating in a sabotage operation that was really a entice.
As a substitute he stumbled right into a entice himself.
Alexsander by no means thought {that a} army guard at a checkpoint would ask him to open his telephone. This very thorough guard discovered {a photograph} that had been despatched to Russia. It confirmed a passport for a soldier combating for Ukraine.
“He caught his nostril into one thing he shouldn’t have,” Alexsander stated angrily concerning the checkpoint officer, respiratory out cigarette smoke into an already very smoky room, stripes of daylight hanging within the haze.
The army officer preserving watch throughout our interview shrugged because the dialog grew tense. He allowed the guards to herald extra cigarettes.
Alexsander took one other puff and peeled off his jacket. On his proper arm was a tattoo: “Amat Victoria Curam,” Latin for “Victory loves preparation.”
He stated he had only one remorse in life.
“If I might return,” he stated, “the one factor I’d change can be to delete that picture.”
Natalia Yermak, Michael Schwirtz and Nataliia Novosolova contributed reporting.