MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) maintains that Sushchenko is a member of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's chief intelligence office.
"Sushchenko was on the territory of the Russian Federation without journalist accreditation from the Russian Foreign Ministry, which is granted to all foreign correspondents working in Russia," the press service told journalists.
According to the press service, Sushchenko has never applied for accreditation, although he had to if he intended to work in Russia as a journalist.
"Sushchenko did not perform journalistic duties in Russia," the press service said.
Earlier in the day, the FSB said it had detained Sushchenko on suspicion of collecting state secrets on the activities of the Russian Armed Forces and the National Guard troops.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry's chief intelligence office has said a Ukrainian national detained in Russia on suspicion of espionage is not one of its employees.
The Ukrainian National News Agency (Ukrinform) confirmed earlier in the day that Sushchenko had been its own correspondent since 2002, who had been working in France since 2010. According to the media outlet, the correspondent was on vacation at the time of the arrest and visited Moscow for private purposes.
