The secretary of the National Security and Defence Council (NSDC), Oleksandr Turchynov, has denied the allegations of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) that employees of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate were detained in occupied Crimea.
"This is the FSB's provocative nonsense, an element of the hybrid war waged by Russia against our country," Turchynov was quoted as saying on the NSDC website.
He said that over the past year none of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate employees had been detained in occupied Crimea.
"The hysterical and false statement by the Russian Federal Security Service has absolutely no ground to it, except for attempts to escalate the situation on the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories," he said.
Earlier on 10 August, the Russian FSB accused the Ukrainian Defence Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate of preparing terror acts in Crimea. It said that one of the organisers of these terror acts, a resident of Zaporizhzhya Region, was detained and now testifying.
The Ukrainian Defence Ministry described the allegations as "provocation" and "red herring" which diverts attention from Russia's attempts to turn the peninsula into an "isolated Russian military unit".
Crimean Tatar leader Refat Chubarov said the allegations may be used as a ground for a large-scale aggression against Ukraine.