MOSCOW, December 29. /TASS/. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has apprehended a Ukrainian intelligence agent in the Kherson Region for transmitting data on Russian troops for artillery strikes, the FSB press office reported on Thursday.

"An agent of the Ukrainian intelligence services has been apprehended on the territory of the Kherson Region for gathering information on the Russian Armed Forces. He was tasked with collecting and forwarding information on the location, numerical strength and units of the Russian Armed Forces, the routes of their movement and the types of equipment and armaments employed in the special military operation with links to terrain maps and geographical coordinates," the press office said in a statement.

The spy passed on the information to an officer of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) via the WhatsApp messenger for the Kiev regime’s military to calibrate artillery, rocket and bomb strikes on Russian troop positions, the FSB said.

The FSB’s branch in the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol has opened a criminal case against the 54-year-old Ukrainian citizen under article 276 of Russia’s Criminal Code (‘Espionage’). The suspect has been taken into custody, the press office said.