Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) says it has captured a female Russian spy who was "carrying out a mission from the [Russian] secret services to destabilize the situation."

Maria Koleda, a woman in her early 20s, was apprehended on April 9 in southern Ukraine.

The SBU said Koleda confessed to shooting and wounding three people during pro-Kremlin protests.

The SBU also said Koleda informed her Russian "spymaster" that she and other activists had an "unlimited quantity" of explosives and she was sending a sabotage group to Donetsk.

People in Russia who know Koleda said she has changed her political views several times, once being a member of radical groups Other Russia and Avant Garde of Red Youth, then switching to a pro-Kremlin group, Young Russia.
 

With reporting by AFP