Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it thwarted multiple assassination plots allegedly orchestrated by Ukrainian intelligence and carried out by Russian citizens recruited to execute the attacks, Interfax reported Thursday.
“The FSB has prevented a string of assassination attempts planned by Ukrainian intelligence agents targeting senior officers of the Russian Defense Ministry involved in the special military operation, as well as their family members,” the agency’s press office said.
Four Russian nationals were detained during operations, the FSB said, adding that searches uncovered improvised explosive devices and communication equipment “used in criminal activities.”
One suspect, a Russian citizen who had lived in Ukraine since 2020, allegedly returned to Moscow in November disguised as a deportee from Ukraine. The FSB claimed he retrieved an explosive device disguised as a portable power bank and surveillance equipment from a hidden cache.
The device, equipped with magnets, was reportedly intended to be placed under the official car of a senior Defense Ministry officer and detonated remotely from Ukraine. The FSB said Ukrainian intelligence coordinated the plot with the suspect’s wife, who remains in Ukraine’s Poltava region, and planned to help him escape first to Ukraine and then to an EU country following the attack.
In another case, a Moscow resident was detained for allegedly conducting surveillance on the homes and workplaces of Defense Ministry officials and their families. The individual reportedly sent photos and videos to Ukrainian handlers to assist in planning attacks.
The FSB also described a plot involving two Russian citizens tasked with delivering an explosive device disguised as a document folder to a Defense Ministry officer. The agency said the device was retrieved from a cache in the Moscow region using coordinates provided by Vitaly Nikolayevich Ragozha, a Ukrainian national reportedly residing in Poland.
All four suspects were charged with “illegal handling of explosives and explosive devices,” “preparation of terrorist acts,” and “high treason,” the FSB said. These charges carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
The arrests come in the wake of the Dec. 17 assassination of Igor Kirillov, head of the Russian Armed Forces’ radiation, chemical and biological defense troops, in Moscow. Kirillov and his assistant, Ilya Polikarpov, were killed by a bomb attached to a scooter parked at the entrance of a building they were exiting.
Ukrainian media, citing intelligence sources, claimed the attack was a special operation by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU). Russian investigators have since detained a suspect in Kirillov’s killing, identified as a 28-year-old Uzbek national, who reportedly confessed to being recruited by Ukrainian intelligence.
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