Russia and Ukraine: Atesh, a group that spies on Russians in occupied Crimea

"I had the feeling that someone was watching me. My heart was beating like crazy."

A man, who we'll call Agent Number One, takes photos while crouching in the bushes.

He tells us that he is a member of a group called Ateš - a word that means "fire" in the Crimean Tatar language.

Through a messaging app, he describes his secret life to the BBC: spying on Russian forces in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.

"I probably spent two weeks planning in my head how and what I was going to do," he says.

 

"I've planned the route, the main backup section, what I'll say if I'm spotted."

Agent number one is thorough.

He takes multiple photos from multiple angles.

But it's dangerous work, potentially deadly.

On one occasion, just a few moments after studying a location, he noticed a group of Russian soldiers nearby.

"It was a terrible moment," he says.

"I managed to duck down next to the car and pretend I had a tire problem."

"By some miracle they didn't talk to me."

Ates says he is collecting information on the movements of the Russian army - mainly in Crimea, but also in other occupied areas and even inside Russia itself.

The operatives say their information helped Ukraine's high-profile attacks in Crimea, such as strikes on a Russian amphibious assault ship and submarine - Minsk and Rostov-on-Don - as well as an attack on the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in September 2023.

Ates said that this week he carried out reconnaissance work after the Ukrainian attack on a possible radar station in Yevpatoria.

Military bloggers in Russia dismiss the network as an online fabrication of Ukrainian intelligence, aimed at exaggerating the extent of the resistance.

On the other hand, Russian media reports that Atesh is a terrorist organization banned by the Kremlin.

 

"Not all Crimeans are zombies"

Through messaging apps and links for the group, the BBC spoke to five people who claim to be active Ates agents, including one who says he is currently working for the Russian military.

Although their testimonies cannot be independently verified, a senior source in the Ukrainian defense and intelligence services told the BBC that these testimonies are credible.

The agents say they are willing to talk to us because they want to show that there is an active resistance movement.

"Not all Crimeans are zombies and are ready to resist under conditions of total censorship," says Agent Number One.

The Russian soldier interviewed by the BBC - Agent Number Five - knows his double life is dangerous.

"The stakes are very high - nobody wants to go to jail."

Those caught face treason charges and long prison sentences.

"Everything must be approached with caution and smartness. Mistakes during such activities are simply unacceptable."

Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in March 2014, eight years before the full invasion of Ukraine.

Ethnic Russians made up the majority of the population for many years, but there is still a significant Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar minority.

The BBC contacted Atesh directly and spoke to their liaison in unoccupied Ukraine.

People do not want to reveal their true identities because of the risk of arrest.

"Russian special services are constantly trying to find partisans," Agent Number Two tells us.

He hides what he does even from his closest family.

 

 

"We can't scatter ammunition randomly"

These people say they started doing reconnaissance work because of their opposition to Moscow's actions.

They tell us they provide information on air defenses, warehouses, military bases and troop movements, sometimes watching specific locations for weeks.

Agent number two says he is not paid for his work, but is reimbursed for expenses such as fuel.

 

Our main contact, a liaison to the group, would not comment on how the group is funded other than to say there are "several" sources of income.

Another body - the Center for National Resistance, which operates under the command of the Ukrainian Special Operations Forces - is openly financed by the government and cooperates with Atesh.

The center insists that Ateš is not a propaganda fabrication and that his information has great value.

"Attacks with Storm Shadow or Himars missiles are very expensive," says the spokesman, who wears a mask and goes by the pseudonym "Ostap".

"We cannot afford to scatter ammunition randomly like the Russians are doing. We have to verify the information we receive."

Agent number two describes how he drove more than 100 kilometers to monitor a military site.

He walked "for a long time" before he managed to find a gap in the fence.

He slipped through it to take photos and gather information about military vehicles.

"It's exciting," he says.

"Adrenaline jumps extremely high in those moments."

In the days that followed, he heard that a successful attack had been made in that area.

"That's the moment I'm most proud of," he says.

 

Pushing the Russians back from the Black Sea

Kiev perceives the huge attack on Russian military targets in Crimea as a key part of the counter-offensive that is stumbling elsewhere, especially on the front lines.

This peninsula has enormous strategic importance because it is essentially an "unsinkable aircraft carrier," says retired Ukrainian Navy Captain Andrei Ryzhenko.

Stationed in Crimea before the annexation and now in Kiev, he says Russia is using the peninsula to "project power" from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean and Atlantic.

That forced Ukraine to open a new waterway to allow grain ships to bypass the peninsula after Russia pulled out of a deal that allowed shipments.

Then again, satellite images indicate that the Ukrainian attacks forced Russia to move assets from occupied Sevastopol to the Russian port of Novorossiysk.

For Ateš, the threat of infiltration by pro-Russian operatives is both real and real, in the murky world of agents and double agents.

 

"We try not to show strategic plans to agents who risk getting caught by the FSB," says our connection, referring to Russia's Federal Security Service.

"A person only knows what he needs to know."

Agent number three tells us that "filming the military of a country at war is suicide," but the risk is justified because of Russia's "criminal war."

"If I'm caught, I'll end up in the basement of the FSB and be accused of being a 'traitor' to Mother Russia."

But with that risk comes the possibility of reward.

"We often get to see the fruits of our labor," says Agent Number Four.

"When Russian military sites are hit and only ashes remain."

Sometimes it's just a quick photo or two.

Sometimes Agent Number Four monitors areas for long periods of time.

"To find out all the routes of the patrols, to find out where all the entrances and exits are, what kind of equipment is on the territory or what exactly is kept in the facility.

Each man tells us that he works alone, contacting only the "curator" to whom information is passed.

Ates emerged as a network after Russia's complete invasion in 2022 and is by no means the only resistance movement in the occupied territories.

He claims that it is a movement that emerged from the people and grew from a small group that now numbers "thousands" of members.

An "oath" posted on messaging app Telegram in September 2022 says: "I swear by my blood and soul" to be loyal to the Atesh movement and "fight for the Ukrainian state."

There are reportedly strong links with the Turkic-speaking population of Crimean Tatars - although representatives of that community who spoke to the BBC say they did not found Atesh.

The group regularly publishes the results of their work on Instagram, even posting photos.

Although the movement appears to provide mostly logistical information, partisan activists also claim to have carried out violent attacks - such as the killing of 30 Russian soldiers in a military hospital and a car bomb attack in Kherson.

The connection we spoke with admits that they are eager for publicity - to recruit more agents and to annoy the Russians.

But all those interviewed by the BBC say that the priority is still to end the Russian invasion and its occupation of Ukrainian territory.

Agent number one says that in Crimea they live in "terrible conditions" of propaganda and control.

"But I am absolutely sure that we are gradually getting closer to the liberation of Crimea."