MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/. Members of an organized crime group who plotted to kidnap a man in Russia for the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) pleaded guilty after their detention, a law enforcement source told TASS.

"After the detention, almost all of the defendants pleaded guilty in the presence of their lawyers and provided the details of the kidnapping plot," the source said.

Lawyer Marina Mastinskaya, who represents one of the defendants, confirmed to TASS that her client had pleaded guilty. "We filed an appeal against his arrest and requested the court to place him under house arrest," she said, noting that her client "did not get a cash reward."

Charges have been brought against seven defendants who have been taken into custody until September 30.

According to investigators, the group was recruited in July to kidnap a man in Russia and take him to Ukraine. Seven Russian nationals were detained during a kidnapping attempt. Investigators believe that the plot was orchestrated by two Ukrainian citizens. A criminal case has been opened under Articles 30.3 (a) and 126.3 of the Russian Criminal Code (kidnapping attempt by an organized group).

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) earlier on Thursday announced the detention of seven members of a crime group who had plotted to kidnap a Donbass militia leader on the order of the Ukrainian intelligence. According to the FSB, the chief of the SBU counterintelligence department supervised the two Ukrainian organizers of the kidnapping plot.