On March 13, three Ukrainian veterans, Petro Hurba, Taras Slyviak and Ivan Sukmanovskyi, were arrested by immigration officials at Lucknow airport and handed over to the National Intelligence Service. They have been charged under the UAPA.
Investigators said on Tuesday that the network was led by U.S. citizen Mathew Aron Van Dyke, who was arrested at Kolkata airport, and three other Ukrainians – Stefankiv Marian, Honcharuk Maksim and Kaminskyi Viktor – who were recently detained in Delhi.
Van Dyke, who describes himself online as the founder of a security consulting firm and a film producer, claims to be involved in conflicts in Libya and Ukraine and covert operations in Venezuela.
All seven accused are in NIA custody and investigators have widened their probe into alleged cross-border links, supply chains and possible threats to India’s security.
On Monday, Additional Sessions Judge Prashant Sharma of the Patiala House Court in New Delhi sent the group to police custody for 11 days, stressing that the charges were directly related to “India’s national security and interests”. The court found that interrogation and detention were necessary at this stage of the investigation.
According to details of the investigation, the Lucknow detainees flew from the UAE to India in December 2025 on a tourist visa, traveled to Mizoram without a mandatory no-go permit and allegedly crossed into Myanmar, where they established links with armed groups hostile to India.
Investigators said the suspects traveled to Lucknow from Guwahati by bus and checked into a hotel near the airport hours before their planned departure. The hotel owner said the three people claimed to be tourists and one of them claimed to be a chef but avoided questions about previous activities.
“Timely submission of Form C by hotels played a crucial role in tracking them down,” a source said.
Investigators say the group procured drones from Europe and shipped them to India and then to Myanmar, where it trained ethnic insurgents in conflict with the military junta.
Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Duhoma earlier told the state assembly that intelligence showed there were Ukrainian veterans in Chin state providing training to the rebels.
According to Delhi’s opinion