Landing of UK-trained Ukrainian saboteurs in Kherson foiled: Russia
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The captured Ukrainian soldier names the UK instructors who have been training Ukrainian service people for sabotage on the Tendrivska Kosa.
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Ukraine Special Operations Forces return from a night mission in the Kherson region on June 10, 2023. (AP)
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) communications office affirmed on Thursday that the agency, alongside the Defense Ministry, thwarted the landing of UK-trained Ukrainian sabotage groups on the Tendrivska Kosa in the Kherson Region.
In its statement, the office said, "The Russian FSB and the Russian Defense Ministry have thwarted the landing of the sabotage groups of the special forces of the Ukrainian armed forces on the Tendrivska Kosa of the Kherson Region, planned by the special services of the UK."
The groups were destroyed during their attempt to land, while one Ukrainian soldier was captured, and according to the FSB, the captured soldier admitted that they were trained in the UK.
The UK instructors who had been training Ukrainian service people for sabotage on the Tendrivska Kosa were also named by the soldier.
“This is Edwin. This is Andrew. And there is also Craig in the background. They are the British instructors who had been training us in the United Kingdom,” he said, pointing at the instructors in a photo.
Read more: UK troops 'on the ground' in Ukraine, German leaks reveal
According to information revealed by the soldier, training was being conducted at the 5 RIFLES military base near the UK city of Salisbury. The trainees were ordered to either kill Russian soldiers or capture them in the operation targeting the Tendrivska Kosa.
An anonymous officer of the FSB stated that the operation was mostly a propagandistic act and could not impact the battlefield.
The FSB noted that the UK's Special Boat Service is supervising the activities of the Ukrainian military division for these operations, which "indicates the direct involvement of the United Kingdom in the conflict."
Back in February, the FSB stated that a UK organization responsible for education and culture has been collecting information for Ukrainian intelligence.
The organization in question was identified as the British Council, and it has reportedly been gathering information in parts of the Russian-administered territories in the Kherson region.
"Through organizations under its control (the British Council) carried out intelligence activities in the interests of Kyiv," the FSB said, adding that it "used Ukrainian refugees living in the UK to obtain military and political intelligence via their contacts in the Kherson region."
