Russia jails Romanian man for 15 years after convicting him of spying for Ukraine

MOSCOW, June 19 - A Romanian man has been sentenced to 15 years in a Russian maximum security penal colony after being convicted of spying for Ukraine by helping Kyiv identify the location of sensitive air defence systems, Russia's FSB security service said on Friday.

It said that the man, David-Adrian Kercho, had shared the location of air defences in Sochi, southern Russia, with a Ukrainian intelligence agency in August 2024.

"In return for helping to obtain information of interest to the enemy, the Ukrainian handler promised the Romanian national assistance in leaving Russia safely and joining a Ukrainian armed group, which is banned on Russian territory, to take part in hostilities against our country," the FSB said in a statement.

The FSB released video of Kercho's arrest in what looked like a park, showing him being forced to the ground by two agents.

Reuters could not establish how Kercho had pleaded to the charge, but the FSB said he had admitted his guilt.

Dressed in a tracksuit, Kercho, who the FSB said was born in 2002, was shown listening to the verdict in his trial in a glass courtroom cage in Russia's southern Krasnodar region. REUTERS