Tyner, 41, began serving in the Army as a human resources officer — military occupational specialty 42H — in January 2008, the official told Military Times. Tyner’s deployments included tours in Afghanistan, Qatar and Iraq.

At the time of his arrest, he was assigned to Imjin Barracks, a British Army base near Gloucestershire, England, which hosts NATO’s Allied Rapid Reaction Corps. His arrest came shortly after the U.S. removed aircraft from British military bases over an unrelated reported threat from Iran.

Tyner was arrested under Sections 1 and 3 of Britain’s 2023 National Security Act and the Army said officials were investigating two locations in Gloucestershire. Counter Terrorism Policing London is leading the investigation and the accused officer remains in custody at a London police station.

“This important arrest involves allegations of espionage, which is of the utmost concern to the United States and our allies,” Patel said in a statement, adding that the FBI had made 167 counterintelligence and espionage arrests over the last 21 months.

Brig. Gen. Sean Stinchon, the commanding general of U.S. Army Counterintelligence Command, thanked the FBI authorities in the UK and encouraged anyone who notices something suspicious to consult officials.

“The alleged conduct of a senior soldier, entrusted with sensitive information, is a sobering reminder that insider threats are real and persistent. I encourage anyone who thinks they’ve witnessed something suspicious to report it to their local counterintelligence office,” he said in a statement.

The arrest comes amid U.S. European Command’s “See Something, Do Something” campaign, which calls on troops, family members and civilian employees to be vigilant about their digital presence and report unusual behavior to authorities. Though the campaign did not identify a specific threat, experts have warned that Russia is ramping up its hybrid warfare.

The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, known as ACLED, said in an October report that Russia had increased its hybrid threats across Europe — such as targeting aviation in Germany, attempting to sabotage critical infrastructure in Poland and ramping up drone incursions in Romania and Moldova — in an attempt to weaken the region’s support for Ukraine. The report expects those threats to grow, noting that Moscow would likely use cyberattacks and ramp up attacks against defense and transportation infrastructure.

The move to give Europe a seat at the negotiating table at the next round of talks, which U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff announced after the talks, could mark a breakthrough. But Putin’s comments underlined how difficult the negotiations could become, given sharp differences between Moscow and European capitals over the way the war should end.

“The Europeans will join at the next meeting, which we consider to be a very important moment because they are our partners and it’s important to us that they take part,” Witkoff told Russian state TV after meeting Putin in the Kremlin.

But in a sign of renewed tensions, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — whom Witkoff and U.S. envoy Jared Kushner were expected to meet later in Dublin — said new restrictions were affecting the U.S.-made satellite communications Kyiv uses on the battlefield, and that he found the U.S. approach of discussing a new European security order with Russia “a bit strange.”

Zelenskiy voiced alarm after two days of trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi earlier this week — the first direct U.S.-mediated negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in nine months — at which Kyiv and Moscow said there had been some progress but that major differences remained, including on territorial issues. Russia holds about one fifth of Ukraine and Kyiv refuses to give up the rest of the Donbas region in its east.

Zelenskyy said disruptions to the Starshield satellite communications service were significant, however, affecting the entire front line and Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine. Starshield is the military version of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite communications service, and Ukraine suffered similar disruptions last month.

“So far we know very little (on the Starshield restrictions). But some things are already clear: if someone in America is making decisions that basically treat Ukrainian territory as if it is not Ukrainian, then it tells us where things are going,” he said.

In a post on Telegram, he said that systemic restrictions were limiting the speed at which Starshield could be used. As a result, Ukrainian interceptors could not reach sufficient speed to down Russian jet-powered drones, he said. SpaceX declined to comment.

EU role in talks?

During the Kremlin talks, Kushner told Putin that Washington had detected what he called “a big change” in the European side and was confident that expanding peace talks to include the Europeans would not hinder progress.

Putin said Moscow had always been open to talking to the EU about Ukraine, but signaled serious outstanding differences.

“As far as the Europeans are concerned, we have never been opposed to engaging in dialogue with Europe, and we have never broken off that dialogue. It was they who broke off the dialogue with the Russian Federation,” he said.

He then warned that the European idea of sending Western troops into Ukraine once a peace deal was concluded would trigger a resumption of the war because Russia would see that as a threat to its own security.

“We would very much like you, gentlemen, and the U.S. administration as a whole, to work with your European allies so that they can finally make up their minds as to what they want: peace or war in Ukraine,” said Putin.

In a briefing after the talks, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov did not confirm that the Europeans would join the next round of peace talks and said their current stance on Ukraine amounted to “a recipe for endless war.”

Proposed aid mission

Putin told the US envoys that Russia was proposing a joint Russian-Ukrainian humanitarian mission to Kostiantynivka in eastern Ukraine, which he said Moscow controlled, an assertion Ukraine has taken issue with in the past, saying it retains a presence there.

Putin said the mission could be modeled on an initiative that allowed residents to leave the Russian-controlled town of Oleshky in southeastern Ukraine at the end of last month and for aid to be brought in for those who chose to remain.

Russia needed five days to clear the area near Kostiantynivka of mines, Putin said, saying there were 400 to 500 residents of the city who were still there. The mission would allow the world to understand who controlled the city, he added.

Ushakov, the Kremlin aide, said the U.S. envoys had welcomed Putin’s idea and would be in touch with Russia about it.

Kyiv has previously expressed concerns that Moscow might wish to use ceasefires for such missions to enable its military to regroup.

Moscow has not made major territorial gains this year, but has heavily attacked Ukrainian infrastructure, and Kyiv has frequently struck Russian oil refineries with drones, causing fuel shortages over the summer, a problem which has resurfaced in some regions this week according to local officials.

Putin has shown no signs of being ready to moderate his territorial demands, which include a buffer zone in parts of Ukraine which Russia has not formally claimed as its own. He said on Thursday that what Russia considers as its state border should be the only meaningful demarcation point with Ukraine, in comments which appeared to signal his determination to pursue his aim of taking full control of all four Ukrainian regions he said he had annexed in 2022.

Ushakov, his aide, also appeared to restate Russian demands that NATO give up any military activity in eastern Europe and Ukraine.

FBI Director Kash Patel said the arrest of the 41-year-old man was related to “allegations of espionage, ​which is of the utmost concern to the United States ​and our allies.”

Brig. Gen. Sean Stinchon, the commanding general ⁠of U.S. Army Counterintelligence Command, added: “The alleged conduct of a ​senior soldier, entrusted with sensitive information, is a sobering reminder that ​insider threats are real and persistent.”

The arrest, which took place near the city of Gloucester, west England, on Tuesday, “is not linked to any other ongoing Counter Terrorism ​Policing investigations,” British police said.

But it occurred the day after ​the U.S. removed refuelling aircraft from a British airbase in the second such apparent ‌evacuation ⁠in three months.

Planes left the Royal Air Force base in Mildenhall, eastern England, on Monday, which, according to the Wall Street Journal, was prompted by a threat from Iran.

The U.S. in September withdrew ​bombers that had ​been used to ⁠strike Iran from RAF Fairford on security grounds over an incident police have linked to Iran, which ​has denied any links to attacks or incidents in ​Britain.

The soldier arrested on Tuesday was detained on suspicion of offenses under sections 1 and 3 of the National Security Act, which relate ⁠to ​obtaining or disclosing protected information and assisting ​a foreign intelligence service. Police said the country to which the allegations relate is ​Russia.