MOSCOW, January 17. /TASS/. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has detained a Sevastopol resident suspected of high treason for gathering data on air defense and Black Sea Fleet sites for Ukraine’s military intelligence, the FSB press office reported on Friday.
"It has been established that a Sevastopol resident entered at his own initiative into a chat contact of the foreign messenger Telegram coordinated by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Department for conducting reconnaissance and subversive-terrorist activity in Russia," the press office said in a statement.
"Acting on an assignment from the foreign intelligence service, the detained individual was gathering information on the location of air surveillance and air defense posts and units of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol and transmitting these data to Ukrainian supervisors via the Internet," it specified.
This information was intended to be used by the Ukrainian military to deliver strikes at Russian military facilities, the press office said.
The FSB Investigative Committee for the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol has opened a criminal probe against the suspect under article 275 of Russia’s Criminal Code (‘High Treason’), which carries a punishment of 12 to 20 years in prison or life sentence, it said.
The suspect has been taken into custody, it said.
The FSB continues to carry out investigative measures, the press office said.