Three Kremlin spies have been arrested in a NATO country after “spraying chemicals” in the faces of soldiers when caught breaking into a weapons factory.

The Albanian Defence Ministry said two men with Russian passports and one Ukrainian who are most likely from Moscow-ruled breakaway regions were behind the attempted sabotage.

The Ministry added, “The officers who were guarding the plant reacted immediately, but during their efforts to stop the three foreign nationals, two of our soldiers were injured.”

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Albania’s defence minister Niko Peleshi said, “In view of the broad regional context and the geopolitical context, this cannot be dismissed as just as an ordinary, civilian incident, but we cannot rush to conclusions.”

However the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said the three spies have been arrested of “suspected of espionage.”

The Albanian soldiers have been taken to hospital and the Defence Ministry said one of those arrested is a Russian national identified as MZ who was trying to take photos at the weapons factory.

The Ministry confirmed that two others were also arrested nearby, a Russian woman only identified as ST and a Ukrainian man called FA and added, that the Gramash military base in Albania is not a “tourist” location.