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Russia Says It Detained 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.

Based on reporting by AP, Interfax, and AFP

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