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Crimean court arrests two suspected Ukrainian spies

Both suspects, who earlier served in Ukraine’s Navy, have confessed to the crimes, according to the source

SIMFEROPOL, November 21. /TASS/. The Kievsky district court in Simferopol has arrested for two months two Ukrainians suspected of espionage, a source in the court told TASS on Monday.

"Alexei Stogniy and Gleb Shabliy, whom the investigators suspect of working for Ukraine’s military intelligence, have been arrested for two months," the source said.

Both suspects, who earlier served in Ukraine’s Navy, have confessed to the crimes, according to the source. Their task was to collect data on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and servicemen.

Russia’s Federal Security Service arrested on November 9 three other members of Ukraine’s sabotage group from the main intelligence directorate of Ukraine’s defense ministry. They had allegedly plotted acts of sabotage against Crimea’s military facilities and crucial infrastructure facilities. Explosive devices, weapons and ammunition, as well as means of special communications and maps of the facilities to be targeted through sabotage were seized from the suspects.

The Leninsky district court of the Crimean city of Sevastopol later jailed the members of the group.

On August 10, Russia’s FSB announced the detention of a group of saboteurs and the deterrence of planned terrorist attacks on the Crimean Peninsula that had been plotted by Ukraine’s main intelligence directorate. The aborted terror attempts were designed to target Crimea’s critical infrastructure and vital facilities, the FSB said. The detained men - Andrei Zakhtey and Yevgeny Panov - admitted their guilt and were arrested. In early October, the Kievsky district court in Simferopol extended their custody until December 10.