"The SBU arrested two Russian citizens working as journalists for Life News. Their residency permits have been cancelled and they will be expelled from our country and barred from returning to Ukraine for three years," Lubkivskiy wrote on his Facebook page.
"These Russian citizens' work has nothing to do with journalism and harms Ukraine's security and interests," he wrote.
Life News said that the two journalists, Yelizaveta Khramtsova and Natalia Kalysheva, had been arrested on the "false pretext" of having filmed the Ukrainian security services' headquarters in Kiev.
Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded Oleg Sidyakin and Marat Saichenko medals following their release a week later.