Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Tuesday that it foiled a Ukrainian plot to commit an arson attack on a railway in annexed Crimea.
An unnamed 29-year-old man was detained near the Balaklava power station in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol before he was able to set fire to railway equipment, the FSB said in a statement.
Video shared by the state-run news agency TASS showed masked agents standing over a man who sat on the ground next to four beer bottles, which appeared to have been repurposed into Molotov cocktails.
In the video, the man said he had “proactively” contacted Ukrainian security services to provide photos and videos of Russian targets in the annexed peninsula.
The man, whose face was blurred and who appeared to read from a written statement, said he was offered $1,000 to commit the arson attack and received $100 to buy the needed materials.
The FSB claimed the man first contacted Ukrainian security services in September 2023
The FSB’s investigative unit in Crimea charged the man with “secretly cooperating with a foreign state or organization” and “attempted terrorism.”
Ukrainian authorities have not immediately commented on the FSB’s claims of a foiled plot.
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, eight years before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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