Russia says it has arrested a group of Ukrainian saboteurs suspected of planning attacks against military sites and vital infrastructure in the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea.
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said it arrested “members of a diversionary and terrorist group of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry” in the Crimean city of Sevastopol on Thursday.
It seized explosive devices, weapons as well as maps of potential target sites from the secret subversive group, the FSB added.
In October, the Russian intelligence agency arrested a Ukrainian journalist accused of spying on armed forces in the country. Later, it arrested a Ukrainian officer allegedly trained by the US spy agency CIA.
Moscow and Kiev have been locked in a dispute since 2014, when Crimea declared independence from Ukraine and formally applied to become part of Russia.
A deadly conflict broke out when Kiev launched military operations to crack down on pro-Russia forces in eastern Ukraine.
More than 9,640 people have lost their lives and over 22,430 others been injured since then, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a report in October.