KIEV (Sputnik) – Detained suspects of attempted sabotage on the Crimean Peninsula are not employees of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, the ministry said on Saturday in a statement.
12 August 2016, 15:55 GMT
On Wednesday, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said that it had eliminated a spy ring organized by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry in Crimea, which was preparing acts of sabotage on "critical and life-supporting elements of the peninsula's infrastructure."
"The Defense Ministry says that there has never been the 37th battalion in the 56th brigade of the Defense Intelligence. The reported detained people are not employees of the Defense Intelligence of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry," the statement said.
On Friday, a Russian intelligence source said that the sabotage operation was organized by Capt. Vladimir Serdyuk, the chief of intelligence of the 37th battalion, 56th brigade of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Defense Intelligence.
