Ukrainian defense plant employee arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia
The court in Kyiv arrested an employee of one of the state defense plants. The detainee is suspected of transferring military information to Russian intelligence, reports the Ukrainian Prosecutor General.
"The investigation found that an employee of one of the state defense enterprises was recruited by an employee of the 316th intelligence center of the Main Directorate of the General Staff (GRU) of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation during his stay in the territory of Russia in 2014. His main task was to collect and transmit military information allowing to carry out destabilizing activities against our country" – reads the statement.
According to the Agency, the detainee collected and transmitted information on the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of military equipment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in exchange for payment. The detainee was also evaluating the equipment which came for repair to the defense plant, determined the state of its combat readiness, made completeness check and defined its belonging to specific military units and other military information that could harm the state security and defense capability of Ukraine.
"On 3 July 2019 investigators and operational staff of Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) detained the suspect during an attempt to cross the state border of Ukraine in the direction of the Russian Federation. Investigators confiscated flash drives and mobile phones with the information that detainee was going to transfer to the employee of the Russian GRU during a regular meeting in the city of Voronezh of the Russian Federation" – reports the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
On the same day, the suspect was informed about the pending high treason charges under the criminal code of Ukraine.