Arrest of SBU counter-terrorism chief, 12 February 2025
A look back at the day Ukraine's security service saw the head of its counter-terrorism department detained on suspicion of working for Russia.
What did it mean when the head of a key security unit was arrested on suspicion of serving the enemy? On 12 February 2025, the head of the counter-terrorism department of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) was taken into custody on suspicion of having worked for Russia since 2018.
The suspicion covered a period of about seven years, reaching back to 2018. The arrest concerned the senior official of a department responsible for countering terrorism within one of Ukraine's main security institutions.
The war in the days before
The arrest came as fighting continued on several fronts. On 7 February 2025, Russia said its forces had taken full control of Toretsk in Donetsk Oblast after months of urban warfare. The battle for the city and its surrounding settlements had begun on 18 June 2024. Later, by 7 August 2025, Russia seized the city after more than a year of urban warfare, the largest captured since Bakhmut over two years earlier.
In Sumy Oblast, a Russian guided bomb attack on 6 February 2025 destroyed a residential building in Myropillia and killed three people, according to Ukrainian officials.
A day in context
The three reports sat within the same week: a security service arrest on 12 February, a claim of territorial gain on 7 February and a deadly strike on civilians on 6 February. Each concerned a different part of the war: the security apparatus, the front line in Donetsk Oblast, and the border region of Sumy Oblast.
