Bulgarian spy ring targeted Ukrainian soldiers on behalf of Russia, court told

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A ring of Bulgarian spies working for Russia targeted Ukrainian soldiers believed to be undergoing training in complex air defence systems at a US military base, a London court heard on Tuesday.

Jurors at the Old Bailey were told that some members of the group had planned an operation at Patch Barracks, a US facility near Stuttgart in Germany, from October 2022 until their arrests in February 2023.

The allegations come in the trial of three Bulgarian nationals living in Britain — Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanchev, 39 — who have been charged with conspiracy to spy.

The prosecution argues that they were acting under the direction of Jan Marsalek, an Austrian national who was allegedly liaising with Russian intelligence. Marsalek, who used the alias Rupert Ticz, believed the base was hosting Ukrainian forces who were being trained to use the Patriot surface-to-air missile system.

The group’s ringleader, Orlin Roussev, 46, discussed with Marsalek using IMSI catchers to intercept and track mobile phone data from military personnel inside the base. Roussev has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to spy.

IMSI devices can track mobile phones and extract sensitive information such as passwords.

Alison Morgan KC, for the Crown Prosecution Service told the court that this surveillance was being carried out in October and November 2022 — “at an absolutely crucial time” in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“The Ukrainian soldier on the air base has his phone completely identified and where does he take that phone after he has been trained on that air base?” Morgan said.

She added: “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.”

The court heard that Ivanova and Biser Dzhambazov, 43, travelled to Stuttgart in October 2022, where they filmed security features at the Patch Barracks base such as fencing, cameras and infrared sensors. Dzhambazov has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to spy.

The jury were shown Telegram messages in which Marsalek warned Roussev to be careful “because the Germans are totally nervous at the moment regarding Russian intelligence activities on the ground”.

The operation was stalled by the arrests of Roussev, Dzhambazov and Ivanova on February 8, 2023, by British police at addresses in the UK.

The jury was also told about an earlier operation to surveil the Russian national Kirill Kachur, who was subsequently designated by Moscow as a “foreign agent”.

While on a mission to surveil Kachur around the town of Budva in Montenegro in January and February 2022, both Ivanchev and Ivanova allegedly met a female Russian spy known as the Red Sparrow, the court heard.

The jury was shown messages in which Marsalek, ahead of these meetings, expressed concerns to Roussev about “competitive feelings” between the Bulgarian and Russian teams on the ground.

The Red Sparrow, whose real name was not disclosed in court, was planning to arrest and extradite Kachur using an Interpol warrant, aided by the Bulgarian’s surveillance, prosecutors said.

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

The trial continues.