Prosecutors allege man was conducting training for Ukraine’s army when he was recruited by the FSB, Moscow’s spy bureau. What we know on day 1,346
A British ex-army instructor has been arrested in Kyiv and accused of spying for Russia while posing as an adviser to the Ukrainian army. Ukraine has accused the man of passing information to Moscow about other foreign military advisers in Ukraine and the coordinates of army training centres. The Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office alleged he arrived in Ukraine in 2024, conducted military training for the army and worked in the border guard before agreeing to collaborate with Moscow.
Ukraine’s state security service, the SBU, alleges the Russian FSB spy bureau gave the man instructions on making explosive devices and also provided him with a handgun and ammunition, while the prosecutor general claimed he “attempted to establish access to the command of military units” in exchange for $6,000. He faces up to 12 years in prison if found guilty. Britain’s Foreign Office told Agence France-Presse that it was “aware of reports that a British national has been detained in Ukraine … We remain in close contact with the Ukrainian authorities.”
Pjotr Sauer writes that Russian commanders are executing or deliberately sending to their deaths soldiers who refuse to fight in Ukraine, according to a new investigation by the award-winning independent outlet Verstka, which paints a bleak picture of internal violence within the Russian army. Verstka cited testimonies from soldiers who said commanders had appointed “execution shooters” to open fire on refusers and later dump their bodies in rivers or shallow graves, registering them as killed in action. Other accounts describe commanders using drones and explosives to “finish off” wounded or retreating soldiers.
