MOSCOW, March 29. /TASS/. Former Ukrainian football player Vasily Vasilenko, sentenced in Russia to 12 years in prison on espionage charges, planned to pass parts of the S-300 air defense system to Ukraine’s Ukroboronprom defense conglomerate, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FDB) said in a statement on Monday.

"It has been established that Vasilenko sought to collect classified military information regarding the Russian Armed Forces, which could harm national security if handed over to another country. In late 2019, Vasilenko was detained by FSB officers while receiving parts of the S-300 air defense system for the state consortium Ukroboronprom," the statement reads.

According to the FSB, investigators gathered overwhelming evidence proving Vasilenko’s guilt.

The Moscow City Court earlier sentenced Vasilenko to 12 years in a high security penal colony. On March 29, a court of appeals rejected an appeal against the court ruling, which has now come into effect.

Vasilenko, a Ukrainian national born in 1967, played for the Ukrainian football clubs Tavriya, Torpedo and Druzhba in 1992-2001.