An Albanian court has ordered two Russians and a Ukrainian held in custody pending an investigation by authorities into what they were doing at a former weapons manufacturing plant.
In his August 24 ruling, Judge Pajtime Fetahu granted a request by prosecutors to detain them amid allegations of “securing secret information of military or any other character in order to be supplied to a foreign power, which violates the country’s independence.”
The arrest of the three, on August 20, caused alarm in Albania, a member of NATO and a supporter of Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s six-month-old invasion.
The two Russians were identified in court documents as 25-year-old Mikhail Zorin, and 33-year-old Svetlana Timofeyeva. The Ukrainian was identified as Fedir Mykhaylov. His age was not provided.
They were arrested inside or near the former military plant in Gramsh, 80 kilometers south of the capital, Tirana. The suspects had taken photos of the plant.
Authorities said that Zorin, who had entered the plant, used pepper spray on two military guards trying to capture him.
Timofeyeva and Mykhaylov were arrested outside the complex.
Police said they seized their vehicle, a laptop, cash, two drones, and other evidence.
The Gramsh military plant opened in 1962 to produce AK-47 rifles and other weapons. It stopped production after the fall of communism in 1990, and began to dismantle the weapons.
The plant is still used to repair other military weapons, but there is no longer any production there.
Local media reported that the three suspects entered Albania from different border entrances and then stayed near the plant.
An official from the Ukrainian Embassy in Tirana, who was present at the hearing, said the Ukrainian suspect was innocent, saying that Mykhaylov only served as the Russians' driver.
Known publicly by a pseudonym, Lana Sator, Timofeyeva is known as an urban explorer, photographing spectacular images from inside sometimes tightly guarded military sites.
In 2012, she snuck into a Russian rocket factory and posted striking images from its interior. She’s been based in Georgia since Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24.