US charges 5 over alleged Kremlin-directed global network targeting Ukraine supporters

The US Department of Justice on Tuesday charged five people with organising attacks and killings around the world, including in the United States and Lithuania, as part of a global network prosecutors say has operated on behalf of Russian intelligence services since at least 2024.

The network most recently sought to recruit people in the United States to surveil and kill Russian dissidents at the direction of the Kremlin, according to an indictment released by the department.

Prosecutors also allege that members of the network recruited and paid others to carry out or attempt terrorist attacks against civilian and military infrastructure in European countries supporting Ukraine.

Three of the defendants are alleged to be senior members of the Russian intelligence network: former Russian intelligence Col. Yuri Khrameyev; his son, Kirill Khrameyev, an officer with Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB; and Oemis Romagoza Durruthy, a Cuban citizen living in Russia.

The other two defendants, Yaidel Delgado Suarez and Angel Eduardo Castro, are alleged recruiters based in the United States who worked for the Russian spy network.

In one case, prosecutors allege that this summer Delgado Suarez and Castro recruited a person living in the United States to surveil a prominent Russian dissident. The person was initially offered between $1,000 and $1,500 for surveillance, followed by an offer of $40,000 to “eliminate” or make the target “disappear”, according to the indictment.

The Khrameyevs also allegedly tried in 2025 to recruit a US citizen to kill a person in Lithuania whom they accused of “spreading lies about Russia”.

After the US citizen rejected an offer of about $25,000 to carry out the killing, Yuri Khrameyev allegedly proposed what he described as “easier work”, including setting fire to a warehouse or attacking an electrical substation.

Khrameyev said the targets were “all countries helping Ukraine” and offered “serious money for serious work”, according to the indictment.

Durruthy is accused of coordinating attacks in the Czech Republic and Lithuania in 2024.

“These defendants allegedly acted as part of a global murder-for-hire network that reached the United States, attempting to recruit US citizens and foreign nationals to carry out murders at the direction of the Kremlin,” said John Eisenberg, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for national security.

The charges include conspiracy to provide material support for terrorism, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Khrameyev, Delgado Suarez and Castro also face charges of conspiracy to commit murder for hire, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.

US officials said the alleged activities pose a threat to national security.

All five defendants remain at large.

Russia has intensified what Western governments describe as hybrid operations against countries supporting Ukraine since launching its full-scale invasion in 2022. Suspected Russian agents have been accused of espionage, sabotage and attempted assassinations in the United States, Europe and other Western countries.

Lithuania’s State Security Department said the US charges illustrate concerns outlined in its national security threat assessments. Lithuanian intelligence has warned that hostile regimes use unconventional methods to influence public opinion, create a sense of insecurity and pressure societies to make decisions beneficial to those regimes.

The department said the case also demonstrated the importance of close and consistent cooperation among international partners in responding to hostile countries.