Russia arrest alleged ‘spy’ for sending location of Kremlin soldiers to Ukraine

Russian intelligence arrest suspected Ukrainian operative

Vladimir Putin’s security service has arrested a Ukrainian civilian for sending to Kyiv the coordinates of Russian soldiers near the Zaporizhzia Nuclear Power Plant.

Footage released by the FSB purported to show two Russian soldiers detaining the man, who they later claimed had a brother in the Ukrainian army.

In a second video, a blurred figure the FSB alleged was the arrested suspect confessed to the accusations made against him.

The report was widely shared by pro-Russia commentators, as well as in the Belarusian state media, but Ukrainian news outlets suggested the video was a fake.

Russian forces took control of the Zaporizhzia NPP in southern Ukraine last year. Since their occupation, there has been widespread global concern that they could use the plant to create a nuclear disaster.

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The FSB, which is Russia’s renewed version of the Soviet-era KGB, published a statement on Tuesday afternoon (July 18) claiming Russian soldiers had been killed as a result of the leaked information.

They suggested a Ukrainian civilian in the city of Energodar, where the nuclear plant is located, on the southeastern banks of the Dnipro River, had been passing on details regarding the whereabouts of Russian soldiers “guarding” the plant to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Their statement read: “The attacker sent the information received to his relative, serving in the artillery unit of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

“Through his activities, the spy contributed to the infliction of artillery strikes by Ukrainian troops on Russian positions, as a result of which Russian servicemen were killed and wounded.”

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In the footage subsequently shared by the FSB of the man’s alleged confession, he said he had passed on the information at the request of his brother.

The accusations were republished across Russian state media, including by Vladimir Solovyov, the pre-eminent anchor on Russia-1, the country’s most watched news network.

It was also reshared by Belarus’ main state media channel BELTA.

But the FSB declined to identify the man, as well as obscuring his face during his confession, leading to Ukrainian commentators declaring it as nothing more than a “fantastic film”.

One local Zaporizhzia news outlet described the footage as “one of the poorest videos the FSB has ever presented”, noting that “[Russia] always hides the faces, and changes the voices, for ‘spies’”. Ukrainian officials have not commented on the accusation.

Express.co.uk could not verify the videos and maintains there is little evidence to corroborate the claims made by the FSB.

The idea peddled by Russian outlets that their occupying forces are “guarding and protecting” the Zaporizhzhia NPP is also disputed by Ukraine and its western allies, who fear Putin will use his control of the volatile area to cause a nuclear disaster.

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