Ukrainian Defence Ministry unaware of retired Black Sea Fleet officer's detention in Sevastopol by Russia's FSB

"The FSB [Federal Security Service] of Russia is once again resorting to provocations using the database located in the territory of Crimea. It is the personal files of former servicemen who served either in the Armed Forces of Ukraine or the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation. A former serviceman of the Black Sea Fleet became the victim of a provocation this time," Ukrainian Defence Ministry spokesman Andriy Lysenko told Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday. "Similar cases involving the exposure of spies and saboteurs who are allegedly affiliated with the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine's Defence Ministry will appear because the personal files of around 10,000 former servicemen who are in retirement today and have nothing to do with ongoing military service in the territory of the peninsula," Lysenko said. Ukraine's SBU Security Service said in response to Interfax-Ukraine's request to comment on the detention: "We don't comment on such fakes." Russia's FSB said earlier on Thursday that a former serviceman of the Black Sea Fleet Staff had been detained on suspicion of collecting classified information about the fleet's activity for the Ukrainian Defence Ministry's Main Directorate of Intelligence. The FSB opened a criminal case on a count of high treason and launched an investigation.