Russia says it killed Ukrainian agent plotting “terrorist” act

Moscow, Russia: Russia’s FSB security service said on Friday it had killed a man recruited by Ukraine to blow up military buildings and energy sites in Russia, state media reported. Moscow has reported foiling dozens of alleged sabotage attacks on Russian territory by pro-Ukrainian supporters since launching its military offensive in February 2022.

The FSB said on Friday it had “neutralized” an individual who “planned to carry out a number of terrorist acts in Russia”, Russian state-run news agencies quoted an FSB statement as saying.

These included attacks “against Defense Ministry facilities in the Moscow region and against members of a volunteer battalion and a volunteer center in St. Petersburg,” it said.

The RIA Novosti agency published an FSB video that included drone footage of an apparent shootout between FSB agents and the suspect in the Leningrad region, near St. Petersburg. The man is seen running into a concrete bunker in a field, before being shot by armed FSB agents surround him and open fire. The video then shows an image of his body inside the bunker, with a pistol lying near his hand.

The FSB said he was a Russian citizen born in 1976 who was recruited by Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence unit. It added that he had previously managed to escape when the FSB sought to detain him in the Moscow region. He had managed to escape, leaving behind a car containing a grenade, a pistol, a hunting rifle and homemade bomb making equipment.

The FSB alleged the man was planning to attack a fuel depot in the Leningrad region. Ukraine has been linked to several attacks on aggressive supporters of Moscow. They include a 2022 car bombing that killed 12 people in Daria Dugina outside Moscow. and a 2023 bomb attack on a St. Petersburg cafe that killed military blogger Maxim Fomin, known as Vladlen Tatarsky. Earlier on Friday, a military court in the far eastern city of Khabarovsk An activist was sentenced to 15 years in prison for setting fire to a recruitment office and vandalizing the graves of Russian soldiers.

Dozens of nomination buildings across Russia have been targeted with Molotov cocktails by people demonstrating against the military campaign in Ukraine and against the mobilization of troops.