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Two individuals suspected of spying for Ukraine held in Crimea

According to the FSB, the exposed spy missions had been plotted by Col. Oleg Akhmedov, who headed a unit of Ukraine’s military intelligence in Kherson, southern Ukraine

MOSCOW, April 15. /TASS/. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Wednesday it had detained two individuals in Crimea suspected of spying for Ukraine’s military intelligence service.

"The Russian Federal Security Service in the Republic of Crimea has thwarted the activity of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry aimed at plotting and carrying out acts of sabotage and terrorism, stealing state secrets and recruiting Russian nationals," the FSB Public Relations Center reported.

The Russian counterintelligence service has foiled the activity of agents recruited and led by Col. Akhmedov of Ukraine’s military intelligence service in Kherson. The group consisted of a Russian servicewoman, who is suspected of sharing state secrets with Ukraine’s military intelligence agents in 2017-2018, and a Ukrainian national, who allegedly spied on the orders of Ukraine’s special service.

The FSB has released a video showing that the Russian servicewoman and the Ukrainian national were captured at home. During the search operation, the officers found banking cards and a contract for military service with Ukraine’s Armed Forces.

Two criminal cases into high treason and espionage have been opened against these individuals. The Ukrainian national has been taken into custody. The woman has been placed under house arrest due to humanitarian reasons, given that she has minor children.

According to the FSB, the exposed spy missions had been plotted by Col. Oleg Akhmedov, who headed a unit of Ukraine’s military intelligence in Kherson, southern Ukraine. The suspects’ alleged espionage activity was revealed as part of investigating a criminal case opened this January. One of the suspects in this investigation is a Russian national, who had built caches in Crimea with rounds of ammunition and explosives, which he had brought from Ukraine’s soil, on Akhmedov’s order.

The FSB says "the Ukrainian military intelligence conspired to carry out several acts of sabotage and terrorism at the facilities of critical social and military infrastructure on our country’s soil." An investigation and a search effort is ongoing.