Ukraine's military chief suspects Russians may be hearing him after devices found

The military chief of Ukraine announced on Monday that a bug was discovered in one of his offices. He did not elaborate when he said that other locations may have had bugs as well. In response to the Ukrainian Security Service’s announcement on Sunday that a bug was discovered in a room he used during a routine sweep, Army Cmdr. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi made remarks to the local press. The agency stated that the device was not functional. Russia was immediately the target of suspicion in the nearly 22-month conflict between the two nations, which is expected to last for another year. “I have several offices where I work. This happened in one of them,” Zaluzhnyi said. “We checked (the room) and found (the device),” he said. He added that listening devices were not only found in the office where he worked, but he didn’t provide further details and left it unclear whether more than one device was found in the Ukraine General Staff premises. The murky developments left lots of questions unanswered. Officials did not comment further. The intelligence services of both Russia and Ukraine have been active during the war. Ukraine’s military intelligence chief has survived 10 assassination attempts carried out by the Russian state security service, or FSB, according to Ukrainian authorities. Last month, his wife underwent hospital treatment after being diagnosed with heavy metals poisoning. Ukraine’s spy agency, meanwhile, reportedly has been active in sabotage operations far behind the front line. Artillery bombardments continue to claim civilians lives as the front-line fighting becomes bogged down by wintry mud and snow. Two Ukrainian civilians were killed and at least two were injured over the previous 24 hours, the president’s office reported Monday. In the north, the Russian army shelled the village of Krasnopillia in the Sumy region, killing a civilian in his home and damaging residential buildings, it said. In the south, an 81-year-old man died on the street during an attack on the center of Kherson city. (with inputs from The Associated Press)