Moscow's spies tried to spike Ukraine's artillery shells in a bid to kill frontline soldiers
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Russian spies tried to spike hundreds of Ukrainian artillery shells with rocks and stones so they would blow up in troops’ faces. Covert GRU operatives penetrated supply lines from eastern Europe to Kyiv’s military weeks ago in a bid to upset the war effort and kill or maim soldiers. They were able to nobble the badly-needed shells before they were transported to Ukraine ’s frontlines, hoping to undermine Kyiv’s war-effort.
But Ukraine’s military uncovered the plot and urgently inspected entire batches of dud 122mm artillery shells used in Soviet-era D-30 Howitzer guns. It is the latest effort by Moscow’s undercover military intelligence spies to try and undermine Kyiv’s battle against the Russian full-scale invasion.
And there are even fears among British military experts that Russia could try to sneak into the UK military procurement process to launch a similar operation. In leaked documents obtained by the MIrror and sent to Ukraine’s military command photographic evidence shows how the shells were filled with rocks and grit.
Some of the spiked shells are believed to have been fired and blew up just metres away from weapons from which they were unleashed. A sinister video of the evidence sent on to the Ukraine MoD by investigators shows a spiked shell, with a concerned voice telling the reader in the Ukraine defence ministry.
“Look, here is the gunpowder mixed with rocks and stone. That’s sabotage. They have dismantled the cartridge and found stones mixed with gunpowder which causes the cartridge to be ripped apart on ignition. Without stones it would propel the warhead but the stones cause a premature explosion in soldiers’ faces.”.
