German security forces have "indications" that Russia's secret services have been spying on Ukrainian soldiers who are staying in Germany to be trained to use Western weapons, German magazine Spiegel reported on Friday.

German military forces have identified some suspicious equipment outside two training centers.

Small drones were also used to fly outside the training centers and then leave, Spiegel said without citing his own sources.

Ukrainian soldiers are being trained in the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate as well as in Bavaria, where the US military is teaching Ukrainians how to use artillery systems.

Security sources have claimed that Russian services used scanners as they tried to gain access to the mobile phones of Ukrainian soldiers, the magazine article said.

Germany is trying suspects for spying for the Russian state.

Last year, a court in Germany sentenced a Russian man to life in prison for shooting dead a Chechen commander in a Berlin park.

Prosecutors have said that Moscow gave the order for the murder.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

He calls the war a "special military operation" to demilitarize Ukraine.

The West has responded to Russia, hitting the economy of this country with harsh sanctions.

/REL/