A war of spies rages between Russia and Ukraine

 Away from the field battlefields between Russia and Ukraine, another war is escalating between the two sides. The authorities in both countries are prosecuting their officials for treason and divulging military and intelligence secrets.

In Russia, the Kursk Court said - in a statement - that it had sentenced two former defense workers in Russia to 17 and 13 years in prison for treason after they were convicted of disclosing military intelligence to Ukraine and planning to bomb railway lines.

Russian Federal Security Service arrested the two - who are a former spouse - last month, in the Kursk region near the border with Ukraine, and accused them of handing over documents and technical models used in the manufacture of weapons systems for the Russian Air Force.

Russian Federal Security Service said - in a statement announcing their arrest - that the former spouses (they are "RA Sidorkin" and "TA Sidorkina") participated in plans to blow up the railways in the Kursk and Belgorod regions that are used to send supplies to Russian forces fighting in Ukraine.

The agency added that it had seized more than 4 kilograms of plastic explosives, 4 detonators, military design documents, and $150,000 in cash.

Sidorkin, 50, was also charged with illegal possession of firearms and ammunition and sentenced to 17 years in prison, and Sidorkina, 41, to 13 years.

In Ukraine, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office said today, Tuesday, that a Ukrainian lawmaker suspected of collaborating with Russia is in pretrial detention.

Oleksandr Ponomariov, an elected deputy from a now-banned party, is accused of having links with Russia, the prosecutor's office said in a statement, adding that the Pechersk district court in Kyiv had ordered his remand without bail.

Source: Reuters