Russia’s security services (FSB) on Wednesday accused the British Council, Britain’s education and culture agency, of collecting military information from Ukrainian refugees, AFP reported.

The FSB statement says that the British Council in Great Britain “through organizations controlled by it” collects information about the Ukrainian Kherson region, which is partially occupied by Russian troops.

“The facts of the use of Ukrainian refugees living in Great Britain by this foreign organization to obtain military and political information through their connections in the Kherson region have been established,” the FSB accuses.

According to this source, a resident of Novaya Maitsika, occupied by the Russian army, appealed to the occupation authorities with a report of an alleged crime.

The FSB said it was conducting “checks” in the region and warned of possible prosecution for “confidential cooperation with the government”, a crime punishable by up to eight years in prison.

The British Council did not immediately respond to an AFP request in London.

The British Council, founded in 1934, is the UK’s international agency for education and cultural relations. State-funded, it claims to operate independently of the British government.

Russian authorities ordered a ban on the British Council in Russia in 2018 after London accused Russian services of trying to poison former secret agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the UK.