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Russian security officials said they stopped Ukraine’s intelligence services from assassinating several high-ranking Russian officers with bombs disguised as document folders and portable chargers in Moscow earlier this week.
Russia’s Federal Security Service said Thursday the explosives plot was a would-be terrorist attack aided by four Russian citizens — on the heels of a Ukraine-planted scooter bomb that killed a top Russian nuclear forces chief on Dec. 17.
“The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation has prevented a series of assassination attempts on high-ranking military personnel of the Defence Ministry,” the agency said.
“Four Russian citizens involved in the preparation of these attacks have been detained.”
The Russian citizens who were allegedly involved were recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services, according to Russia’s Federal Security Service, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB.
One of the suspects was carrying a bomb disguised as a portable charger in Moscow with a plan to attach it to a Defense Ministry official’s car, the agency said.
“An explosive device disguised as a portable charger, with magnets attached, had to be placed under the official car of one of the senior leaders of the Russian Defence Ministry,” the agency said.
Another Russian man was allegedly tasked with keeping tabs on senior Russian defense officials — and delivering a bomb disguised as a document folder, the officials said.
The exact date of the planned attacks was unclear but one of the suspects said he had retrieved a bomb on Dec. 23, according to the agency.
Russian state TV showed what it said was footage of some of the suspects who admitted to being recruited by Ukrainian intelligence for bombings against Russian defense ministry officials.
The foiled attacks come less than two weeks after Ukraine’s intelligence service killed Lieutenant General Kirillov, chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, in Moscow outside his apartment building by detonating a bomb attached to an electric scooter.
A Ukrainian intelligence source claimed to be behind the hit, and Russia has vowed to exact revenge.
Moscow blames Ukraine for a string of high-profile assassinations on its soil designed to weaken morale. It says the West is supporting a “terrorist regime” in Kyiv.
Ukraine has said it believes targeted killings are a legitimate tool in a war waged by Russia in February 2022.
Darya Dugina, the 29-year-old daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist, was killed in August 2022 near Moscow.
US intelligence agencies believe parts of the Ukrainian government authorized the killing, The New York Times reported.
With Post wires
