Russia's FSB Thwarted Attempts Of Murder Against Senior Defense Officials And Their Families

The arrest of the suspect by the Russian FSB. (Source: Russia's Federal Security Service)

JAKARTA - The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) claims to have succeeded in thwarting a series of attempted killings of senior Russian defense officials in Moscow and their family members planned by the Ukrainian intelligence service, the FSB press office said Thursday.

"The Russian Federal Security Service has thwarted a series of attempted killings planned by the Ukrainian special service agency against top-ranking soldiers of the Russian Ministry of Defense who participated in special military operations and also members of their families," the press office said in a statement to TASS, as quoted December 27.

"As a result of the actions taken, four Russian nationals involved in planning the attempted murder have been detained," the statement continued.

The killings are planned to target top Russian Defense Ministry officials with a bomb disguised as a power bank and document folder, the statement said.

The FSB explained that "a Russian citizen who has lived permanently in Ukraine since 2020 and been recruited by the Ukrainian special service" arrived in Moscow from Ukraine in November 2024 'on his way through Moldova and Georgia" disguised himself as a person who was deported to carry out a terror attack.

"While in the Moscow area, he took a homemade explosive device and a video surveillance system from its storage area. The explosive device disguised as a portable charger (bank powerer) with the installed magnet was intended to be planted under the official car of a top Russian Defense Ministry official whose driver is a close relative," said the press office.

It said Ukrainian intelligence agencies planned to remotely detonate the bomb from Ukrainian territory. Apart from being a supervisor of the Ukrainian intelligence agency, preparations for the terrorist attack were also coordinated by the wife of an agent living in Mirgorod, Poltava, Ukraine.

The plan, after the terror attack, Ukrainian intelligence agencies plan to confirm the departure of their agents to Ukraine and then to one of the European Union countries, the FSB press office said.

The FSB has also identified a Moscow resident recruited by the Ukrainian intelligence agency who collected intelligence data on their instructions regarding the residence and workplace of top Russian Defense Ministry officials and their family members.

"He sent photo and video material to his superiors to plan a terrorist attack," the FSB press office said.

"The terrorist act is planned against one of the defense officials by involving two Russian nationals) both of whom were also detained. They were assigned to send a homemade explosive device disguised as a document folder that they had taken from a storage area in Moscow using coordinates they received from Ukrainian citizen Ragozha, Vitaly Nikolayevich, born in 1988, a native of Krasnodon in the Lugansk Region who lives in Poland and works for the Ukrainian intelligence service," explained the FSB.

The FSB confiscated homemade explosive devices and communication devices from four detainees who had used them in their criminal activities, the press office said.

"The enemy's special services send explosives to our country in the form of household electrical equipment, tools, and car parts," he said.

The FSB Department of Investigation for Moscow and Moscow Region has launched a criminal investigation into this disclosure. The arrested suspect faces up to life imprisonment.