A retired US army colonel has been arrested and accused for sending classified Pentagon secrets relating to Ukraine through a foreign dating website.

 

David Franklin Slater, 63 years old, believed he was contacting a Ukrainian woman and sent secret Pentagon documents to the unnamed individual - who referred to Slater as “her secret informant love.”

 

Slater and the “Ukrainian woman” discussed Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine over emails and the dating platform, where “she” regularly asked him for his access to classified national defense information.

 

"Beloved Dave, do NATO and Biden have a secret plan to help us?” One message read.

 

“Dave, it's great that you get information about [unnamed country] first. I hope you will tell me right away? You are my secret agent. With love," another one read.

 

"Dear, what is shown on the screens in the special room?? It is very interesting," says another message sent by the individual according to the court documents.

 

The information the retired colonel shared "could be expected to cause serious damage to the national security that the original classification authority was able to identify and describe," according to the indictment obtained by CBS news - he now faces one count of conspiracy and two counts of unauthorized disclosure of national defense information

 

He will appear in court next Tuesday and could face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to USD 250,000 for each count of conspiracy to transmit and the transmission of national defense information - according to The Guardian.