Criminal proceedings on the fact of illegal imprisonment of an employee of Radio Liberty, the Krym.Realii (Crimea. Realities) project, on the territory of the temporarily occupied Crimea peninsula, has begun under the procedural guidance of the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, press secretary of the Prosecutor's Office of the ARC Kateryna Didenko said.

"The actions of the occupational 'law enforcement officers' are qualified under part 2 of Article 146 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (illegal imprisonment). The sanction of the article provides for punishment in form of restriction of freedom for up to five years or imprisonment for the same period. The pretrial investigation will be carried out by the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol," Didenko wrote on her Facebook page.

As reported, the Public Relations Center of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation reported that on March 10, a citizen of the Russian Federation Vladyslav Yesypenko was detained in Crimea, collecting information on the instructions of Ukrainian intelligence: he photographed and filmed places of mass stay of people and life support facilities. An object 'with external signs of an improvised explosive device' was found in Yesypenko's car.

"According to the detainee Yesypenko, he collected the above information in the interests of the special services of Ukraine on the instructions of officer of current reserve of the 8th section of the 5th department of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, Colonel Kravchuk, and, on his recommendation, he kept an improvised explosive device in the car to ensure his own safety," the FSB reported.

A number of Russian publications also reported Yesypenko's Ukrainian citizenship and that he is a journalist for the Krym.Realii portal, a project of the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty.

At the same time, the Krym.Realii in its publications does not name Yesypenko as its employee. According to the newspaper, Yesypenko is a native of Kryvy Rih in Dnipropetrovsk region and was detained together with Alushta resident Yelyzaveta Pavlenko, with whom he was present on March 9 at the rally dedicated to the birthday of Taras Shevchenko in Simferopol.

The Krym.Realii citing its own sources, reports that Pavlenko and Yesypenko were detained in the afternoon of March 10 at the Angarsk pass by FSB officers wearing masks, but later Pavlenko was taken home, where a search was carried out, and her equipment and personal belongings were seized. Yesypenko was taken away in an unknown direction, and as of the morning of March 12, it became known that he was in a temporary detention center in Simferopol.

The Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine (SVR) said that the information spread about the alleged exposure of the intelligence activities of the Ukrainian special services in the occupied Crimea is untrue and "aims to create an appropriate background for holding an informal meeting of the UN Security Council on Crimean issues initiated by the Russian Federation on March 17." The SVR regarded the spread of such information as a propaganda action on the eve of the Crimea occupation anniversary.