23:29, 5 March 2026

A Romanian citizen was convicted in Kuban in an espionage case.

The Krasnodar Regional Court sentenced Romanian citizen Adrian-David Kercho to 15 years in prison, accused of espionage on behalf of Ukraine. In December 2024, he was detained by security forces in Abkhazia, and in April 2025, the FSB announced his arrest in Sochi.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," in December 2024, the Abkhazian State Security Service reported the detention of Romanian citizen David Kercho (also referred to as David Kercho Adrian), suspecting him of attempting to film military bases and facilities on behalf of Ukrainian intelligence. It was claimed that he came to Abkhazia as a tourist and maintained contact with the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine. The Abkhazian State Security Service (SGB) published a video in which a detainee testified in English, describing his ties to Ukrainians.

On December 16, 2024, the Russian state news agency reported that David Kerch Adrian, detained in Abkhazia, had been deported from the republic. "He committed no illegal acts and cooperated with the investigation, which is why he was deported from the republic and declared persona non grata in Abkhazia," TASS quoted an SGB representative as saying. The publication did not specify where exactly the Romanian citizen was deported. In April 2025, the Russian FSB announced that a Romanian citizen born in 2002 had been detained in Sochi. He had been collecting data on the deployment locations of air defense systems on behalf of Ukrainian special services as early as the summer of 2024. The official statement on the agency's website did not name the detainee.

The Krasnodar Regional Court sentenced Romanian citizen Adrian-David Kercho, finding him guilty of espionage (Article 276 of the Russian Criminal Code carries a sentence of ten to twenty years in prison).

According to the prosecution, the Romanian citizen, "not supporting the policies of the Russian Federation, including regarding the conduct of the Joint Military Operation," contacted a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense in November 2024 on his own initiative.

The prosecution alleges that Kercho informed a Ukrainian intelligence officer of his desire to join the "British Legion," who offered to provide him with safe passage out of Russia in exchange for collecting and transmitting information about Russian military installations, according to a statement from the Kuban Joint Press Service.

The statement does not specify how the Romanian citizen had arrived in Russia before that point. However, the verdict states that on November 12, 2024, he used a quadcopter to collect and transmit via messenger "geographic coordinates and additional information about the air defense system located in Sochi."

The court noted that Kercho was aware of the "negative consequences" of this activity for the Russian Federation, including "losses among personnel and military equipment" of the Russian army as a result of the Ukrainian side's use of the data he collected. The verdict also notes that the Romanian citizen's activities were discovered and stopped by officers of the Kuban branch of the FSB.

The Krasnodar Krai Prosecutor's Office also announced the verdict for 23-year-old Romanian citizen David-Adrian Kercho, but presented a slightly different version of events. According to this version, Kercho was in Sochi as a tourist in August 2024 and somehow obtained information about the armament and deployment of one of the military units stationed in the city. However, it was only in November 2024 that he "out of conviction" transmitted this information via messenger to a Ukrainian intelligence officer, "also providing an additional description of the external characteristics of the equipment and fencing," according to the department's Telegram channel.

David-Adrian Kercho was sentenced to 15 years in a maximum-security penal colony. Caucasian Knot has not yet received any comments from the defendant or his lawyer regarding the prosecution's case or plans to appeal the verdict.

Translated automatically via Google translate from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/421359