Key Points and Summary – Ukraine’s security service (SBU) has charged former Ukrainian defense engineer Oleg Borsuk with treason in absentia, accusing him of helping Russia target Ukrainian cities.
-After fleeing to Russia in 2009, Borsuk allegedly became a lead developer of satellite navigation systems for Russian cruise and ballistic missiles, including the Kh-101, Kh-59, and Kalibr.
-The SBU claims that under his leadership, Russia produced nearly 3,200 satellite navigation units in 2023 alone.
-The case highlights the issue of treason during the ongoing war, a trend also seen in Russia with a dramatic increase in espionage and “discrediting the army” cases since 2022.
A Tale of Two Treasons: The Accused Traitors of the Russia-Ukraine War
SBU, Ukraine’s security service, announced that it has charged a former defense engineer with treason, accusing him of “helping Russia target Ukrainian cities by developing navigation systems for cruise and ballistic missiles,” The Kyiv Independent reported.
The charges, filed in absentia, were announced on Telegram. Oleg Bursuk has been charged under Article 111 of Ukraine’s criminal code, with treason committed under martial law.
“The SBU reported suspicions in absentia to the chief developer of navigation for Russian cruise and ballistic missiles,” SBU said, per a Google translation from Ukrainian to English of the Telegram message.
“The security service has collected evidence on the traitor engineer Oleg Borsuk, who, after fleeing Ukraine to the Russian Federation, became the main developer of satellite navigation for the Russian missile weapons.”
About an Accused Traitor
Borsuk, a 61-year-old Ukrainian national, worked at a defense plant in Cherkasy Oblast before he fled to Russia in 2009.
He then became a “major player” in Russia’s military sphere.
“Borsuk allegedly oversaw the development and modernization of satellite guidance systems (GPS/GLONASS) used in Russian missiles,” The Independent reported. “In 2023 alone, under his leadership, nearly 3,200 satellite navigation units were produced, including those for Iskander tactical missile systems.”
The Kh-101, Kh-59, and Kalibr were listed as some of the weapons on which he worked, and the Independent pointed to specific strikes for which they say he was responsible.
“Since the perpetrator is hiding in the territory of the Russian Federation, comprehensive measures are underway to bring him to justice for crimes against our state,” the Independent said.
According to Defense Mirror, Borsuk is “The Father of [the] Russian Missile Guidance System.
Accused Traitors at War
This is not the first case of someone being accused of treason in the course of the Russia-Ukraine war. Although some of the cases have been stronger than others.
Per the Moscow Times, Grigory Skvortsov, a Russian photographer, was sentenced to 16 years in prison this week, following his arrest in November 2023. Skvortsov was charged with “state treason for sending publicly available historical materials — supplementary documents for the book ‘Soviet ‘Secret Bunkers’: Urban Special Fortifications of the 1930s-60s’ — to an American journalist.”
Skvortsov, who had come out against the war. He has said that “the investigation began with accusations about my alleged political motives,” especially since the book in question is available publicly in Russia.
A Growing Trend
It’s part of a rising number of prosecutions for treason in Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2002. Per the Moscow Times, which cited lawyers, “nearly 80% of all treason cases in modern Russian history were opened after the full-scale invasion.”
“The case is absurd, of course, but it’s not the first and I’m afraid it won’t be the last one built on such absurdity,” said Yevgeny Smirnov, a lawyer, told the media outlet. “He [Skvortsov] was never familiar with the procedures for handling state secrets — he simply had no way of knowing what constituted a state secret and what didn’t.”
The AP, nearly a year ago, wrote about what it called a rising trend of sometimes dubious espionage cases in Russia since the war began. It noted that treason is “probed and prosecuted in absolute secrecy in Russia and punished with long prison terms.”
Among those cases was that of Svetlana Davydova, a mother of 7 charged in 2015 with once contacting the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow. American executive Paul Whelan was charged and convicted of espionage, although he was freed in a prisoner exchange in 2024, as was American journalist Evan Gershkovich, also brought up on bogus espionage charges.
“Russians reportedly have been charged with treason — or the less-severe charges of ‘preparing for treason’ — for acts including donating money to Ukrainian charities or groups fighting alongside Kyiv’s forces, setting military enlistment offices in Russia on fire, and even private phone conversations with friends in Ukraine about moving there,” the 2024 AP story said.
About the Author:
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
