A Russian intelligence officer was detained in Donetsk on Monday evening, Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has said.

"Last evening in Donetsk, we, along with SBU, detained a Russian intelligence officer under certain circumstances compromising this special service. I don't know whether [SBU Chief] Valentyn Nalyvaichenko will want to talk about it or prefer silence [at a planned briefing] tomorrow?" Avakov wrote on his page on Facebook on March 10.

He also said that law enforcement officers had found journalists abducted in Crimea. He noted that the negotiations on their release were underway.