Russia detains Lithuanian spy amid row over Ukraine

(Vatican Radio) Russia's domestic security agency says it has detained a suspected Lithuanian spy in Moscow, after Lithuania claimed to have captured a suspected Russian spy. 

The latest standoff comes amid heightened tensions between the two neighbors over the conflict in Ukraine, where Kiev says it is ready to consider hosting ballistic missiles to counter what it views as Russian aggression. 

Listen to the report by Stefan Bos:

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said the Lithuanian spy detained in Moscow was in its words "caught red-handed as he was receiving secret documents from a Russian citizen."

The FSB claimed that the suspect, who has been held since Tuesday, had admitted to being an officer of Lithuania's military intelligence.   

Earlier this month Lithuania claimed to have detained a suspected Russian spy who allegedly tried to infiltrate the country's leadership, law enforcement and security institutions. 

UKRAINE TENSIONS

Russia's relations with its Baltic neighbor have deteriorated after Lithuania condemned Russia's actions in Ukraine. 

Lithuania has joined Western countries in condemning what it views as Moscow's support for separatists and fears the conflict will spread to the Baltics and other countries in the region. 

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite previously defended a decision to re-introduce conscription, saying there is a very real threat of Russian aggression. 

"I think that already think we are in the frontier. And the first stage of a confrontation is taking place. I mean informational war, propaganda and cyber attacks," Grybauskaite said at the time. 

"Will it be extended to a conventional confrontation? Nobody knows," the President added.   

BALLISTIC MISSILES

Amid those fears, Kiev has said it is open to considering proposals to place a ballistic missile defense system on its territory to ward off attacks from Russia. 

The comments by the head of Ukraine's National Security Council come shortly after Russia's President Petro Poroshenko appealed to the West to help him develop a European army. 

"We to want to have this level of cooperation. Not only to defend our country now, but to build up a very pro-European army here on the East to defend not only our sovereignty, not only our erritorial integrity or our independence," he said. 

The new army is "to defend the freedom, to defend democracy, to defend European values because we are fighting now for that," he explained, adding that he doesn't trust his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.   

However the Kremlin has already warned that the deployment of a missile defense system in Ukraine would force Russia to adopt countermeasures which could further escalate international tensions.