Security Service of Ukraine warns that FSB is 'hunting' Ukrainians in Russia
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said that the FSB is hunting Ukrainians in Russian territory, and says that it is extremely dangerous to travel to the “aggressor country”. A statement to this effect was released on the SBU’s official website.
In this connection the SBU warned Ukrainians of the danger of being in Russia, which is confirmed by “multiple documented facts of Russian provocation as part of the hybrid war”.
According to SBU head Vasyl Hrytsak, Russian intelligence is “trying to implicate Ukrainian citizens in illegal activity, by artificially creating compromising situations”. Furthermore, the FSB uses the relatives of Ukrainians in order to “lure” Ukrainian citizens into Russian territory, “especially participants in the ATO (Anti-Terrorist Operation) in south-eastern Ukraine”.
The department also reported that Russian intelligence has “committed yet another act of anti-Ukrainian provocation, by illegally detaining in Moscow Ukrainian citizen and ATO participant Oleh Nehoda, who was traveling to his relatives”.
News of Nehoda’s arrest came out on January 2. At the end of 2017, Nehoda went to visit his sister in Saratov. According to UNN sources, the man was arrested by unknown persons in the Russian capital between December 24 and 25. No reasons for his arrest were specified, and his current whereabouts are unknown. According to the source, Nehoda served in the ATO zone between 2016 and 2017.
“We asked the Russian Federation’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to inform us whether the mentioned citizen had been arrested,” said Vasyl Kyrylych, official representative of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s consulate services, as reported by UNIAN. “If the fact of his arrest is confirmed, we will ask them to inform us of the reason he was arrested and under what circumstances, the place of arrest, as well as to immediately authorize the consul to visit the detained Ukrainian,” Kyrylych noted.