Australia Charges Dual Citizen With Spying for Russia

Barrett said the man shared what he obtained in Ukraine with "individuals he believed were acting on behalf of Russian intelligence services," putting the safety of Ukrainian military staff at risk.

"We don't want Australia to become a safe haven for people who are undertaking foreign interference on behalf of other countries," the commissioner said at a news conference.

Claire McGuinness, deputy director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, which ran the investigation alongside the federal police, said: "This case should put regimes perpetrating foreign interference on notice: we have zero tolerance."

Russia's embassy in Australia said it knew nothing about the case. "At this stage, no official requests or notifications have been received by the Embassy or the Consulate General in Sydney, either from the Australian authorities or from the individual concerned," it said in an email to the AFP news agency, adding that it was "using the available channels and resources to establish the circumstances of the case."