Ukrainian interpreter who attended meeting with Theresa May at Downing Street accused of SPYING for Russia
Stanislav Yezhov was in No 10 as recently as July this year when he accompanied Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman as his aide
A TRANSLATOR welcomed into Downing Street and photographed behind Prime Minister Theresa May is being held on suspicion of being a Russian SPY.
Stanislav Yezhov was apprehended by the Ukrainian Security Services who believe he used his role to collect intelligence from different governments.
He was in No 10 as recently as July this year when he accompanied Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman as his aide.
Yezhov was detained in his office on Wednesday night and is currently being held in a remand centre.
He is known to have accompanied Hroysman on his international trips and often served as an interpreter and has worked in the past in the president's office and at the Ukrainian Embassy to the United States.
Head of the Counterintelligence Department of the SBU Security Service of Ukraine Oleksiy Petrov said: “The official had access to rather narrow insider information of the Cabinet of Ministers.
“He enjoyed respect. He worked very responsibly, diligently and creatively for the Russian special services.
”He passed along information, stole documents, eavesdropped on news, searched for information among colleagues and regularly sent it to the Russian special services, to his supervisors whom he worked for. What a rat in glasses.”
Ukrainian news outlet Ukrayinska Pravda, Yezhov's wife, Yulia Miroshnikova, is a Russian citizen and has accounts with Sberbank of Russia.
It was claimed he was recruited during a business trip when he started spying for the country.
The Kremlin said it was aware of Yezhov’s detention in Ukraine on charges of treason in favour of Russia.
A spokesman said: “We’ve read news but we have no information.”
A press release from the SBU, Ukraine's secret service, said they had detected a Russian agent working for the Ukrainian government.
The SBU said the suspect used electronic equipment to harvest data of interest to the Russian government.
Its release said: "The SBU operatives documented that the offender by the order of Russian curators collected data on the activities of governmental institutions by means of special equipment. He passed received data to curators through electronic communication channels."
If found guilty under the Ukrainian Criminal Code's high-treason laws he could face up to 15 years in prison.