A Russian court on Tuesday sentenced a retired officer from its naval fleet based in Crimea to 14 years in prison for passing on military secrets to Kiev.

Leonid Parkhomenko was detained in 2016 in the naval port of Sevastopol on the Russian-annexed peninsula.

The Rostov-on-Don court in southwestern Russia also stripped Parkhomenko of his military titles, news agencies reported.

From 2003 to 2005 he collected information about Russia's Black Sea Fleet and gave it to Ukraine in return for cash, according to Russian media.

The FSB security service said he was receiving orders from the Ukrainian defence ministry.

Relations between Russia and Ukraine have been in crisis since 2014, when Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula following a pro-European uprising in Kiev.

An armed conflict in eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russian-backed separatists has since claimed more than 10,000 lives.

In November the situation in the waters around Crimea escalated when Russia seized three Ukrainian navy ships and arrested 24 sailors.

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