Russia has arrested and imprisoned dozens of people for allegedly cooperating with Ukraine’s army and intelligence agencies since it launched its full-scale military offensive in February 2022.

“The court found that the defendant was engaged by the Ukrainian intelligence services to collect and transfer information about the presence of Russian armed forces on the territory of the Bryansk region,” the court said in a statement on Telegram.

Russia’s Bryansk region sits across the border from northern Ukraine. It has been the site of multiple shelling and drone attacks and a cross-border incursion by a pro-Ukrainian militia last year.

The defendant, who was not named, pleaded guilty and the trial was heard behind closed doors, the Bryansk courts service said.

Yesterday, Russian state media reported that a court in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don had sentenced a Ukrainian to 11-and-a-half years in prison for trying to buy “top secret” missile components.

Both men were sentenced on espionage charges.