Each defendant will need to serve half their sentence before being eligible for parole, the judge says.

He adds that they are all liable for automatic deportation to Bulgaria, which he says would occur at the end of the custodial sentence.

Mr Justice Hilliard notes that there are some who are more culpable, and others who are less so.

He says he will distance the two groups.

As we heard from our correspondent in court before the hearing began, the plan is to pass sentences in two groups of three this afternoon.

The judge now turns to Orlin Roussev's plea - remember he has pled guilty - and says that he will sentence him in accordance with his plea.

In his plea statement being read out by Mr Justice Hilliard, Roussev says that he had no intention of prejudicing the safety and interest of the UK - the judge says the intention is of no consequence, that "prejudice to safety or interest to the UK... is inevitable and so obvious and significant".

In his plea, Roussev also notes that no harm came to any of his targets, but accepts he has no control over how Russia would use the information he gathered against the individuals.

Justice Hilliard is going through a list of material seized from Orlin Roussev's address, including passports, radio jammers and concealed cameras - more on what was found here.

The items found were described by experts as a "vast amount of technical surveillance equipment for intrusive surveillance".

The details of operation four are now under discussion - a plan to stage a false protest at the Kazakh embassy in London.

The idea was to then give information about the alleged perpetrators to Kazakhstan, in order to give the appearance that Russia was keen to build its relationship with the country.

Mr Justice Hilliard sets out the evidence for this including photographs taken outside the embassy and of a document intended to prove the existence of the fake protest organisation.

As for operation five, the judge describes how this concerned plans to spy on a barracks in Germany where Ukrainian troops were training.

The court hears how videos were taken of the military base's fencing and gates, as well as plans made for transport and accommodation to support the operation.

The judge turns to operation six, external, targeting Kirill Kachur - a man who had worked for the Investigative Committee of Russia until he fell foul of the Kremlin.

Mr Justice Hilliard says he is not going to sentence any of the six defendants over conspiracy to kidnap Kachur, however he is "sure" that they did not see what they were doing as a "legitimate process.

Mr Justice Hilliard is going into details of Operation Three - which you can read more about here.

He says one of the group, Ivan Stoyanov, pretended to be a member of the NHS whilst spying on Bergey Ryskaliyev.

Ryskaliyev made a victim personal statement, he tells the court, which includes the money he had to spend on security and to change office.

The judge is again going through the particulars of the operations.

He begins speaking about operation one, which targeted a journalist for the Bellingcat group.

Christo Grozev was discussed by some of the group, where they spoke about watching him, kidnapping him and taking him to Moscow.

Surveillance on him began in August 2021, where Grozev was followed from Vienna to Valencia by Katrin Ivanova, Vanya Gaberova and Biser Dzhambazov, Mr Justice Hilliard says

He was kept under surveillance for months after that.

In June 2022, he was followed from Vienna to Montenegro by Ivanova, and was watched at a conference for journalism during the age of Russian aggression, the judge says.

The judge goes into further detail about the money received by the defendants for their work.

As an example, he describes how there is evidence of cryptocurrency payments from Marsalek to Roussev.

He continues to explain how some of these funds were "substantial" and in excess of the money distributed by Roussev to the other defendants.

In one instance, Roussev transferred 204,000 euros to co-defendant Bizer Dzhambazov, Mr Justice Hilliard says.

Mr Justice Hilliard then goes through the six operations that make up the prosecution's case against the six. We spoke about the details a little earlier.

The defendants were motivated by money, he says.

Mr Roussev worked for "Mr Ticz", who was an intermediary for Russian intelligence services, Justice Hilliard continues.

"Activities were of obvious interest to the Russian state," he tells the court.

Justice Hillard says it was an "enormous task to prepare this case for trial" and commends the police officers involved.

Mr Nicholas Hilliard continues now by outlining the defendants and what they did.

He says that between August 2020 and February 2023, they were deployed to gather information that was calculated to be of interest and used by Russia, for a purpose "prejudicial to the safety" of the state.

Mr Justice Hilliard then proceeds to set out out how each of the convicted spies pled during the case.

You can find summaries for all six defendants in our post earlier on.

Mr Justice Hilliard begins sentencing by saying that he has evidence and counsel notes on each of the defendants. He says he can't mention every point but is taking account of them all.

He says that sentencing will take some time as it is a complex case with a large number of considerations, as well as because of the number of people involved.

Image source, UK Pool

Image source, Getty Images

After a lengthy trial and years of police investigations, sentencing of the convicted spies is about to begin at the Old Bailey.

We'll bring you Judge Mr Nicholas Hilliard's remarks as he passes sentence here, and you can also following along by pushing watch live above.

Very shortly, Mr Justice Hilliard will pass sentencing remarks on the six defendants convicted of being involved in a Russian spy ring.

That follows mitigation pleas earlier on, where the defendants' lawyers sought to argue in respect to their client's sentences.

Today, we heard the final elements of mitigation for Vanya Gaberova - who was convicted of conspiracy to spy.

Watching in the room, our correspondent Daniel De Simone tells our live stream that her lawyer had put to the judge that his client was a "victim of Bizer Dzhambazov", who she was in a romantic relationship with.

"The barrister was saying that she was effectively controlled by him, and that it was a great tragedy that she's come to be involved in this," De Simone explains.

As a result, De Simone tells us that her lawyer asked for Gaberova to receive a sentence of five years in prison.

We've just heard from our team inside courtroom eight in the Old Bailey that the judge has announced that sentencing will begin at 15:00 BST.

Stay with us as we bring you Mr Justice Hilliard's remarks when things get going in roughly 15 minutes.

As our correspondent in the room reports, we're expecting the sentencing to take place in two parts.

Image source, Facebook

Three of the Bulgarians set to be sentenced today were found by a BBC investigation to have previously attended a Brexit event in Parliament.

Orlin Roussev, Biser Dzhambazov and Katrin Ivanova were present at an event to debate Brexit in a committee room in May 2016.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing on the part of either the event's organisers or attendees.

But, photographs posted on social media and unearthed by the BBC show the spies with representatives of European political parties.

A parliamentary spokesperson said Parliament was a public building but that security processes were "robust".

• There's more in our article on how the spies were seen seated behind Georgi Pirinski, a US-born former communist

The prosecution's case focused on six operations the spy ring had carried out before they were convicted in March this year:

• Operation One targeted the Bulgarian journalist Christo Grozev. He was followed through Europe, and the spy cell also discussed potentially robbing his laptop and phone, kidnapping him to Moscow, or killing him
• In Operation Two Roman Dobrokhtov, a Russian national, was followed in various countries. At one point Ivanova got so close to him that she could see the pin on his phone
• Operation Three targeted Bergey Ryskaliyev, a former Kazakhstan politician who fled to the UK, in the hope of developing relations between Russia and his country
• Operation Four involved plans for disruptive activity at the Kazakh embassy in London in September 2022. The group intended to stage a fake protests - to gain intelligence which they would pass on to Kazakhstan to try to gain favour with the country on behalf of Russia
• For Operation Five, the group conducted surveillance of a US military base in Stuttgart, which the defendants believed was used to train Ukrainian forces
• Operation Six planned to target a man called Kirill Kachur, a Russian national who had been designated as a “foreign agent” by Russia in November 2023 after leaving the country

Daniel De Simone
Reporting from the Old Bailey

Court eight at the Old Bailey is full.

There are no seats left. Some journalists are standing at the back of the court.

Because there are six defendants, some of whom have multiple security guards, space in the dock itself is also limited.

We therefore expect the judge to pass sentences in two phases – the first three defendants, then the other three.

The barrister for Vanya Gaberova is currently making arguments in mitigation for his client. After he finishes, sentencing is expected to get underway.