Military data from Sumy region ended up in the hands of the FSB: who “betrayed” the defenders?

The awarding of artillerymen in the Sumy region became the occasion for a serious incident. The personal data of active servicemen, which were to be used for the award, were published on the Internet by blogger Mykhailo Kurochkin, probably with the help of some officials of the Sumy district council. This situation was commented on by Borys Spitsyn, head of the Sumy regional branch of the NGO “Stop Corruption”, who raised the issue of a possible threat to the military.

The problem of the leak of military data

On January 10, 2025, Borys Spitsyn appealed to the head of the Sumy district council Ruslan Sirenko with a proposal to award military men. The document contained passport data, personal information, information about service and military merits, as well as the addresses of their families.

But already on January 14, it became known that confidential information from this submission appeared on the Internet, in particular on Kurochkin’s page.

Recall that since 2005, Kurochkin has been known for his cooperation with well-known individuals associated with the betrayal of Ukraine, in particular Yevhen Murayev and Andriy Shariy.

It turned out that the deputy head of the district council, Volodymyr Bitsak, could have been involved in the data leak, who allegedly gained access to the documents and made copies of them.

Bitsak’s financial fraud

Boris Spitsyn claims that Bitsak earned money from defense structures, having access to finances allocated to support the DFTG (volunteer territorial defense formations). In particular, he spoke about cases of corruption in the DFTG under his leadership, where fictitious participants who do not actually perform any tasks are kept.

Spitsyn also noted that Bitsak could have illegally appropriated budget funds that were allocated for fuel for vehicles that were not actually used.

Threat to the military and the government’s response

The leak of personal data of military personnel has raised concerns about the possible use of this information by Russian intelligence services. Bosin’s experience shows that if the FSB gains access to the data, it could lead to serious consequences for these military personnel and their families.

Spitsyn has sent inquiries to various law enforcement agencies, including the Ministry of Defense, but to no avail. He suspects that the Ministry of Defense may be colluding with local officials to conceal these facts.

At the moment, he has filed a complaint with the prosecutor’s office, hoping for an investigation into the situation and accountability for those involved in the data leak.

It should be noted that very recently, in April, the Sumy regional prosecutor’s office exposed another corruption scheme – fictitious treatment in a medical center, which caused losses of over 4.7 million hryvnias.