A Belarusian journalist has been detained in Ukraine, with Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) accusing her of spying for Belarus’s KGB. According to Reform.news, the woman is Inna Kardash. Information about the operation was published by the press service of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry on its Telegram channel and was later deleted.
“As part of a joint, long-term, and complex special operation by the internal security units of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine and investigators of the Security Service of Ukraine, under the procedural supervision of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, a spy of the Belarusian KGB was exposed. She attempted to infiltrate one of the units of Ukrainian military intelligence,” the deleted post said.
The 35-year-old agent was detained in Kyiv and formally notified of suspicion of espionage, the Main Intelligence Directorate said.
“During the special operation, which lasted several months, officers of the Security Service of Ukraine and the internal security of the Main Intelligence Directorate documented the criminal activities of the Belarusian spy and conducted an operational game with her — under the guise of secret data, she was ‘fed’ disinformation,” Ukrainian counterintelligence officers said.
It was claimed that the agent had worked for the Belarusian KGB since 2015. In 2020, she was sent to Ukraine for intelligence work. Her cover was journalistic activity — after working for the Medvedchuk-linked, sanctioned television channel 112, the spy found employment at one of Ukraine’s leading media outlets.
“Later, on the instructions of her handler, under the pretext of the need for a medical examination, the woman traveled for additional briefing to one of the EU countries. From the security services she received an assignment to collect information about Belarusians and Russians who are fighting against the aggressor state on Ukraine’s side,” the Main Intelligence Directorate said.
According to their version, the Belarusian spy was also supposed to establish contacts with employees of the Chinese embassy in Kyiv in order to gather information about the activities of Chinese diplomats in Ukraine.
After an extensive body of evidence was collected, the woman was detained in Kyiv. A smartphone and a voice recorder used to collect classified information were seized.
She is currently being held in custody. She faces up to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property, the Main Intelligence Directorate said.
According to Reform.news, the detainee is Inna Kardash.
In Belarus until 2020, Kardash worked as a freelance journalist and collaborated with, and was in a relationship with, the notorious cameraman Vasily Semashko. Semashko took part in a KGB provocation against Pavlo Sharoiko, a correspondent for Ukrainian Radio in Minsk, in 2017. Semashko handed Sharoiko what was presented as a secret Russian document, after which the Ukrainian national was sentenced to eight years in prison on espionage charges. In 2019, Ukraine exchanged Sharoiko for a Belarusian spy.
From 2020, Kardash worked together with Semashko for the Ukrainian television channel 112.
On June 19, 2020, she was detained during a peaceful protest. Later that year, she moved to Kyiv and worked for 112 as well as for Interfax-Ukraine.
It is known that Kardash studied journalism at the European Humanities University.
