Three Russian citizens have been arrested for allegedly providing information to the Ukrainian radical group Right Sector, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has announced.
The men are all residents of Voronezh Region, located in southern Russia, not far from the border with Ukraine, the agency said in a statement on Monday.
According to the FSB, the men passed on information about Russian military facilities and transport infrastructure to the Ukrainian radical group.
Their actions were “directed against Russia’s security,” and the three men now face treason charges, it agency added.
The Right Sector played a key role in the violent coup in Kiev in 2014, which led to the overthrow of the democratically elected president, Viktor Yanukovich. Later that year, the far-right group formed volunteer units to take part in Ukraine’s so-called “anti-terrorist operation” against the Donbass republics, which sought assurances before recognizing the change of power in Kiev. Many of its members are now fighting against Russia in the ranks of the Ukrainian military.
In interrogation videos released by the FSB, the suspects said they were recruited via the internet shortly after the conflict in Ukraine broke out in late February 2022.
One of the detainees said that he decided to aid the Ukrainian radicals due to his “disagreement with the launch of the Russian military operation [in Ukraine] and desire to change the political leadership” of the Russian state.
According to another suspect, his handler from the Right Sector tasked him with expanding the network of pro-Ukrainian agents and recruiting more people.
The third man claimed that the orders he had received from Ukraine included gathering information on the whereabouts of a Russian fighter pilot and staging fires and explosions at railway and industrial facilities in Voronezh Region.
Since the start of the conflict, the FSB has regularly reported the arrests of people suspected of planning or conducting sabotage and other illegal missions on Kiev’s behalf.
One of the most high-profile cases earlier this month involved a neo-Nazi group, members of which were accused of plotting the assassination of RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan and journalist and former presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak.