The Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia has reported to have detained a Russian citizen in the airport of the Russian city of Krasnoyarsk; the man is suspected of trying to join Ukraine’s Armed Forces, Russia’s state news agency TASS reports, citing the FSB Centre of Public Relations.
The resident of the Russian city of Abakan is accused of attempted high treason.
“The detained man pro-actively decided to go over to the enemy side and join Ukraine’s Armed Forces to take part in combat as part [of Ukraine’s forces],” FSB claims.
For this purpose, the man allegedly “committed acts of vandalism towards administrative buildings of the regional authorities”. In regards to these crimes, he was brought to criminal responsibility under the vandalism article.
FSB detained the man, according to the press service’s statement, while he was trying to leave for Ukraine through the territory of one of the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States] to be able to join Ukraine’s Armed Forces.
According to Telegram channel Baza, the detainee is a 60-year-old Igor Pokusin. He was allegedly detained back on 24 July in the Krasnoyarsk airport, Baza claims.
“According to the FSB investigators, the 60-year-old man came there from Abakan to fly to [Kazakhstan’s] Astana, and then transit to Ukraine through Moldova. There, Igor allegedly planned to join Ukraine’s Armed Forces to fight against the Russian army,” Baza reports.
The criminal case on attempted high treason was initiated only on 7 December.
FSB previously reported that two residents of Crimea’s Sevastopol had been arrested in a high treason case that involves alleged handover of military facility information to Kyiv.
One Sevastopol resident “being a supporter of the Ukrainian ideology, was recruited by the Ukrainian Security Service in 2016”, FSB claims. According to the service, he was paid to communicate information about military facility locations to Ukraine “which could be used against Russia’s security and affect national defence capabilities”.
FSB also claims that he involved another local man “in these illegal actions”. The other man was handing over information about the FSB facilities via WhatsApp.