Republished April 17, 2019 - 7:54 AM
Original Publication Date April 17, 2019 - 6:26 AM
KIEV, Ukraine - The Ukrainian Security Service says that it has arrested seven Russian nationals who it says have been plotting attacks in Ukraine.
Ukraine's intelligence agency, which is also known as the SBU, said Wednesday that two of the seven men claim to work for Russian intelligence but offered no documentation to back up this claim.
The arrests come days before Ukrainians vote in the presidential election runoff.
Following news of the arrests, there was some confusion after Radio Free Europe on Wednesday interviewed someone it thought was one of the arrested men.
However, it appears that Timur Dzortov, who is an official in the North Caucasus region of Ingushetia, is just a namesake of the person from Ingushetia who was arrested in Ukraine. Both men have also served as deputy chiefs of the regional leader's administration.
The mistake became apparent when it was found out that the two men have different patronymics — a patronymic is a person's father's name that is routinely used in Russia as a middle name.
The SBU was not immediately available for comment.
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This story has been corrected to say that the man arrested by the Ukrainian Security Service has a different patronymic compared to the man interviewed by Radio Free Europe. A patronymic is a person's father's name which is used in Russia as a middle name.
News from © The Associated Press, 2019