Russia nabs Ukrainian spy, says he will be sent home
MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia's domestic security agency said Thursday it has captured a Ukrainian security officer who volunteered to spy for Moscow and will send him back because they believe he is a double agent.
The Federal Security Service, or FSB, the main KGB successor agency, said in a statement that the man, Yuri Ivanchenko, was detained on Saturday.
The agency said Thursday that Ivanchenko traveled to Moscow to offer his services to the FSB. It claimed that the CIA had helped the Ukrainian security service prepare Ivanchenko for the mission aimed at eventually exposing his Russian contacts.
The FSB said Ivanchenko, who reportedly solicited his services once before, in 2014, will be sent home and not face any charges.
Russia and Ukraine are locked in a tug-of-war after Moscow's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and its support for a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine.
In Kiev, chief of the Ukrainian Security Service, or SBU, Vasyl Grytsak confirmed in comments to the Interfax news agency Ivanchenko was an SBU employee but insisted he went to Russia on his own volition. Grytsak said Ivanchenko has had no access to "state secrets" since 2015 and was about to be fired.
Meanwhile in Moscow (from RFE/RL's news desk):
Director Of Ukrainian Library In Moscow To Face Fresh Charges
The director of the Library of Ukrainian Literature in Moscow, who has already been accused of inciting extremism and ethnic hatred, is facing fresh charges.
The lawyer for Natalya Sharina said on March 31 that his client will be formally charged by Russian investigators on April 5 with two counts of misallocating library funds.
The lawyer, Ivan Pavlov, said the authorities had "trumped up" new charges after realizing their initial case against Sharina was too weak.
Sharina, 58, was detained in October and charged with inciting extremism and ethnic hatred by carrying books by the Ukrainian ultranationalist author Dmytro Korchynskiy, whose works are banned in Russia.
Sharina, now under house arrest, rejects the charges, saying the books were planted in the Library of Ukrainian Literature by police.
Based on reporting by Interfax and TASS
Here's another Ukraine-related news item, this time from RFE/RL's news desk:
Belarusian Opposition Activist Suspected Of Taking Part In Military Conflict In Ukraine
MINSK -- Belarus authorities are seeking a prominent pro-democracy activist for allegedly taking part in hostilities in eastern Ukraine where pro-Russia separatists have been battling Ukrainian government forces.
The mother of Eduard Lobau told RFE/RL's Belarus Service that her apartment in the capital of Minsk had been searched by police on March 31.
Maryna Lobava said the search warrant was connected to the probe into her son who is an activist of the unregistered opposition Young Front organization in Belarus.
Lobava said police confiscated two laptops, a PC processor, several memory cards, and a book.
It is unclear which side Lobau may have been fighting for, although he is known for his strong pro-Ukranian stance.
Lobau, who is reportedly now in Ukraine, spent four years in jail in 2010-2014 after a court found him guilty of assaulting two people.
He claimed then that his imprisonment was an attempt by the authorities to isolate him on the eve of the disputed reelection in 2010 of Alyaksandr Lukashenka as president that ended with demonstrations and the mass arrests of activists.
At the time, Amnesty International recognized Lobau as a "prisoner of conscience."
Here is today's map of the latest situation in the Donbas conflict zone, courtesy of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry (CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE)
Here's a new item from our news desk:
Russia Claims To Detain Ukrainian Spy
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) says it has captured a Ukrainian security officer who volunteered to spy for Moscow and will send him back because they believe he is a double agent.
In a statement quoted by Russian news agencies, the FSB, the main KGB successor agency, said the man, Yuri Ivanchenko, was detained on March 26.
The FSB said on March 31 that Ivanchenko traveled to Moscow to offer his services to the FSB. It claimed that the CIA had helped the Ukrainian security service prepare Ivanchenko for the mission aimed at eventually exposing his Russian contacts. It said Ivanchenko will be sent home.
Relations between Russia and Ukraine have been tense after Moscow's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and support for a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine.