Kyiv claims to have arrested "Russian spy"
KYIV. Oct 9 (Interfax) - A spokesperson for the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said that a Russian intelligence agent has been held in the town of Rivne.
"The spy, a Ukrainian citizen who permanently resides in Russia, was to recruit a senior officer from the headquarters of the Ground Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces," the SBU spokesperson said in a statement on Sunday.
"In exchange for passing documents classified as 'secret' and 'top secret' concerning the military training, armament, mobilization deployment and military cooperation between the Ukrainian Armed Forces and foreign partners, the GRU [Russian military intelligence] agent was to offer to a Ukrainian officer and his family Russian citizenship and money. The amount depended on the relevance and importance of the military secrets," the spokesperson said.
The SBU counter-intelligence has identified "the spy's curator" as "Russian secret agent Alexander Ilyukhin," the spokesperson said.
Having received the offer of cooperation with the Russian secret services, the Ukrainian military officer turned to the SBU; on October 7, 2016, "the Russian spy" entered Ukraine to receive classified documents on which Ukrainian security operatives had already "worked," the SBU spokesperson said.
The following day he was held by SBU officers while receiving a memory stick containing disinformation that he believed to be the classified material of military nature.
Meanwhile, it emerged earlier that Russia had arrested a Ukrainian journalist, Roman Sushchenko, on suspicion of espionage.
On October 3 the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said that its officers in Moscow "arrested Col. Roman Sushchenko, an employee of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, during a spy operation." The FSB opened a criminal case under Article 276 (espionage) of the Russian Criminal Code, an inquiry is underway.
The arrested man was in Russia without journalistic accreditation, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Kyiv called the arrest a provocation on trumped-up espionage charges.