Kiev: The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the top Ukrainian diplomat in Moscow on Saturday, hours after the Russian security agency briefly detained a Ukrainian consul in St. Petersburg for allegedly receiving sensitive data, Ukrainian media said.
“Ukraine’s charge d’affaires in Russia, Vasily Pokotilo, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry following the arrest of the Ukrainian consul. We do not agree with their accusations. It was a provocation staged by the Russian security services,” an unnamed diplomat at the Ukrainian embassy in Moscow was quoted as saying by the Unian news agency.
Oleksandr Sosoniuk, the Ukrainian consul, was detained on Saturday morning during a meeting with a Russian national who allegedly wanted to pass classified information to Ukraine. The diplomat was held in custody for several hours, a spokesman of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.
