LONDON: Five Bulgarian nationals suspected of spying for Russia will be charged with conspiracy to conduct espionage, UK prosecutors said Thursday.
Three men and two women “will be charged with conspiring to collect information intended to be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy for a purpose prejudicial to the safety and interest of the state,” the Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement.
The charges relate to alleged offenses that took place between August 2020 and February 2023, the CPS added.
Orlin Roussev, 45, Bizer Dzhambazov, 41, Katrin Ivanova, 31, Ivan Stoyanov, 31, and Vanya Gaberova, 29, will appear at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London on Tuesday.
Three of them — Roussev, Dzhambazov and Ivanova — were charged in February with “possession of false identity documents with improper intention,” the CPS said.
UK to charge five Bulgarians with spying for Russia
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UK to charge five Bulgarians with spying for Russia
- The charges relate to alleged offenses that took place between August 2020 and February 2023, the CPS added
More than 1,700 Africans fighting for Russia, Ukraine says
- “We clearly see that Russia is trying to drag African citizens into a deadly war,” Sybiha said
- The African fighters came from 36 different countries spread across the continent
KYIV: More than 1,700 Africans are fighting for Russia in its war in Ukraine, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Wednesday, adding that Moscow was using deception to trick them into fighting.
Speaking alongside his counterpart from Ghana, Sybiha said that discussions were taking place with governments across Africa to prevent their citizens from being drawn into such schemes. Ghana will chair the African Union regional bloc next year.
“We clearly see that Russia is trying to drag African citizens into a deadly war,” Sybiha told a news conference. “According to our data, there are currently over 1,780 citizens from the African continent fighting in the Russian army.”
The African fighters came from 36 different countries spread across the continent, he added.
Russian authorities have denied illegally recruiting African citizens to fight in the armed forces.
However, reports of African men being lured into Russia with promises of jobs and ending up on Ukraine’s front line have become more frequent in recent months, creating tensions between Moscow and some of the countries involved.
Ghana’s Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said that many of the Africans fighting for Russia were victims of deception, lured on the dark web with the promise of ordinary jobs.
“They have no security background. They have no military background. They have not been trained,” Ablakwa said. “They were just lured and deceived, and then put on the frontlines.”
Ablakwa expressed solidarity with Ukraine and called for a ceasefire to end the war, which marked its fourth anniversary on Tuesday. He said that he would ask Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to release two Ghanaian prisoners of war, who were captured fighting for Russia.
Ghana would promote schemes to raise public awareness about trafficking networks deceptively recruiting for Russian forces during its presidency of the African Union, Ablakwa said.
