A Ukrainian diplomat accused of receiving sensitive information from a Russian citizen, in the midst of a military and diplomatic crisis between the two countries, has been arrested, the Russian security service FSB reported on Saturday.
“A Ukrainian diplomat, a consul of the Consulate General of Ukraine in St. Petersburg, Alexander Sosonyuk, was arrested by the FSB in Russia,” the security service said in a statement, stating that the arrest was take place on Friday.
The Russian internal intelligence service noted that Sosonyuk was discovered “with his hands in the dough” during a meeting with a Russian citizen when he sought to receive “classified” information.
“Perhaps activity is not compatible with its diplomatic status and is clearly hostile to the Russian Federation,” the FSB said.
“In accordance with international law, action must be taken against the foreign diplomat,” he added.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday that it had summoned Ukrainian business leader Vasili Pokotilo to protest Sosonyuk’s “illegal activities”, “incompatible with the status of consular official.” “.
Russia said the diplomat’s presence on Russian territory “was no longer welcome” and “recommended that he leave his borders within 72 hours.”
– Provocation –
For its part, Ukraine confirmed that the diplomat was detained for several hours before being released and then went to the Ukrainian consulate.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said the arrest was “another provocation amid destabilizing activities in Russia,” in a statement sent to AFP.
He expresses a “vigorous protest against Sosonyuk’s illegal detention” and says he “completely rules out” the veracity of the allegations against his compatriot.
He added that Ukraine will expel a Russian diplomat in retaliation within 72 hours.
Many Ukrainians have been detained in Russia and Russians in Ukraine for espionage cases since 2014, but the arrest of a diplomat is uncommon.
Russia and Ukraine have been at loggerheads since pro-Westerners came to power in Kiev in 2014, followed by the annexation of Crimea by Moscow and a war between Kiev forces and pro-Russian separatists east of Kiev. Ukraine, which has left more than 13,000 dead.
– Rising tensions between Russia and the West –
Since the beginning of the year, this conflict with the separatists has experienced a new outbreak that resulted in dozens of deaths and Kiev accuses Russia of wanting to “destroy it.”
Russia, for its part, has said it “does not threaten anyone,” while denouncing Ukrainian “provocations.”
For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was received in Paris on Friday by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said he expects the truce to resume in the war. east of his country next week, at the same time calling for a peace summit with Moscow with Franco-German mediation.
This resurgence of the conflict in eastern Ukraine reinforced the diplomatic crisis between Russia and the United States, with respective expulsions of diplomats and sanctions, imitated by other European countries such as Poland or the Czech Republic.
Czech authorities announced on Saturday that they will expel 18 Russian diplomats identified as spies.
“We have good reason to suspect the involvement of agents from GRU unit 29155 with the explosion of the ammunition depot in Vrbetice (east),” which occurred in 2014 and left a balance of two dead , explained Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis.
GRU Unit 29155 is the same one that included Russian agents suspected of poisoning double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, UK in 2018.