Ukrainian strikes are pummelling enemy targets in Russian-held territory, disrupting supply lines and sparking a fuel crisis – often guided by the unseen hands of a secret army behind enemy lines.
Thousand of underground Ukrainian agents are working in occupied parts of the country to weaken Vladimir Putin’s grip on their homeland, supplying intelligence on high-value targets to the Ukrainian military, carrying out sabotage operations and undermining Russia’s efforts to absorb these territories.
Atesh, a movement that grew out of Crimea’s Tartar community after the full-scale invasion of 2022, is at the forefront of this resistance.
The group claims to have supplied crucial information to the Ukrainian military over the past month that assisted successful strikes on Russia’s Perevalne base and Saki airfield in Crimea. The military said it could not confirm details of its collaboration with resistance groups for security reasons.
Atesh agents also documented the aftermath of strikes on Russian radar positions, and a partial withdrawal of enemy forces from the strategic Kinburn Spit, in order to inform army damage assessments.
A spokesperson for Atesh, who cannot be named for security reasons, said the group has about 2,000 active members working in reconnaissance, sabotage and coordination roles. “We carry out continuous military reconnaissance,” they said. “Our agents identify troop positions, ammunition depots, airfields, logistics routes, military infrastructure and monitor the activity of air defence systems… all intelligence is passed promptly to the Ukrainian Defence Forces.”
Saboteurs have also carried out attacks on enemy logistics such as railway lines used to supply occupation forces, they said. Atesh has claimed attacks on targets inside Russia such as a power plant in Taganrog, a chemical facility in Tula and communications technology in Belgorod.
#ATESH destroyed three communication nodes in Russia’s Belgorod region used by both military communications and air defense systems. pic.twitter.com/pvlSYk2LPJ
— ATESH_eng (@atesh_eng) June 12, 2026While the Ukrainian military does not publicly disclose details of the partnership, commanders of drone units have revealed that many of their strikes inside occupied territory “rely on intel provided by the resistance”.
Oleksii Goncharenko, a Ukrainian MP, told The i Paper: “We have seen successful operations targeting military and other infrastructure facilities that… would not have been possible without the support of the local resistance movement.”
Mykola Bielieskov, a military analyst at the National Institute for Strategic Studies in Kyiv, said the contributions of on-the-ground sources “gathering intelligence and checking effects of attacks” is of critical importance.
Dr Jade McGlynn, head of the Ukraine and Russia Programme at the War Studies Department of King’s College London and a leading researcher of Ukrainian resistance under occupation, said the success of Kyiv’s campaign against targets in Russian-held territory depends on agents working in the shadows.
“It definitely does rely on human intelligence, on sending coordinates from the occupied territories and also after a strike having people on the ground who can confirm ‘yes that was hit’ or ‘no they already left’,” she said. “Because that’s also useful – you can see if information is leaking.”
McGlynn, who maintains a tracker of resistance attacks in occupied areas and Russia, said the primary form of resistance has shifted during the war, from attacks to supplying intelligence in response to an increasingly entrenched Russian occupation with wide-reaching surveillance.
Firefighters tackle a blaze after a Ukrainian drone strike in Sevastopol, Crimea (Photo: Telegram/AP)Around once a week, these agents will be involved in a spectacular attack behind enemy lines, such as assassinations and car bombings targeting Russian officials and collaborators, she said. This is down from a rate of around one per day for much of the war, coinciding with the escalation of Ukraine’s campaign of mid-range strikes against Russian assets on occupied land in recent months.
“That’s a great sign because it means that people are doing less risky stuff,” said McGlynn. Supplying coordinates is a “safer” means of resistance, and Ukraine’s military “now has the resources… to act on them”.
But any form of resistance still carries risk. Russia has built an extensive security state within the occupied territories, with thousands of FSB agents, checkpoints and CCTV cameras. Tracking the resistance is a priority and any sign of subversion can result in interrogation, torture and killings, according to the UN and human rights groups.
Some groups practise non-violent means of resistance such as displaying Ukrainian symbols and burning Russian flags, to combat attempts at “Russification”.
However, such displays are fraught with danger. A spokesperson for the Yellow Ribbon resistance group said in 2022 that “at least 30” of its members had been arrested, with some possibly killed, for symbolic acts of non-violent resistance.
The Foreign Office recently ended funding for Yellow Ribbon and Zla Makva, another group promoting non-violent resistance, over security concerns.
An activist with a sign saying ‘Luhansk is Ukraine’ which refers to the region that is largely occupied by Russia (Photo: Yellow Ribbon/Telegram)Atesh’s spokesperson said the group’s security and secrecy practices have had to adapt to increasingly aggressive Russian attempts to hunt them down.
“We operate a strict vetting process for new members, keep direct contact between individual agents to an absolute minimum, and work on the principle of small, autonomous cells,” they said. “This significantly reduces the risks, even if an individual member is detained.”
“The Russian security services are constantly intensifying their efforts to counter the Ukrainian underground. They have increased the number of FSB officers in the occupied territories, expanded surveillance and screening measures, and are continually trying to identify or infiltrate members of the movement.”
The group has lost members during the struggle, the spokesperson said, but “we prefer not to discuss specific numbers”.
Communication has also become more challenging as Russia has shut down Ukrainian mobile networks, banned encrypted apps and replaced them with Russian alternatives that carry surveillance software.
Atesh has established secure channels with some sensitive exchanges – including with the Ukrainian military – conducted face-to-face, the spokesperson said.
Resistance groups have learned that too much organisation is dangerous and have evolved into looser structures with minimal contact between members, said McGlynn.
“It has to be completely decentralised or the FSB will just wrap you up,” she said. “It’s just not safe if you know who the other people are. So what appears as disorganisation is actually the best way to be organised.”
A Russian soldier in the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine (Photo: Getty)Despite the danger, the underground resistance movement is said to be growing. Atesh receives regular enquiries from prospective applicants to join, the spokesperson said, and also benefits from civilian informants who share intelligence on Russian movements.
That includes people inside Russia “who consciously oppose the regime and are prepared to take significant personal risks”, they said.
Ukraine’s success in targeting Russian assets in the occupied territories is also creating new opportunities for the movement, according to the spokesperson.
“Areas of Crimea that were once regarded as relatively out of reach are now being targeted on a regular basis,” they said. “Russia has already begun relocating elements of the Black Sea Fleet’s command structure to Novorossiysk, while Crimea is gradually losing its role as a secure rear base and the principal logistical hub for Russian forces in southern Ukraine.”
They added: “The combination of effective military operations by the Ukrainian Defence Forces and the work of the underground resistance is creating the greatest opportunities yet to further weaken Russia’s military presence in Crimea.”
The resistance can point to extraordinary successes, McGlynn notes, such as the role of resistance agents in Operation Spiderweb, which inflicted heavy damage on Russia’s strategic bombers.
But she suggests the movement’s greatest success is that it continues after four-and-a-half years of brutal occupation, and that despite all attempts to erase the identity of the regions, they remain “part of the Ukrainian nation”.
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