Russia’s Federal Security Service said Thursday it had foiled several Ukrainian intelligence plots to kill high-ranking Russian officers and their families in Moscow using bombs disguised as electric chargers or document folders.
On December 17, Ukrainian SBU intelligence killed Lieutenant General Kirillov, head of Russia’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection troops, in Moscow in front of his apartment building by detonating a bomb attached to an electric scooter.
An SBU source confirmed to Reuters that Ukrainian intelligence services were behind the attack.
Russia said the killing was a terrorist attack carried out by Ukraine, with which it has been at war since February 2022, and vowed revenge.
“The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation prevented a series of assassination attempts against high-ranking servicemen of the Ministry of Defense,” the FSB said.
“Four Russian citizens involved in the preparation of these attacks have been arrested,” the statement said.
Ukraine’s SBU did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said the Russian citizens were recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services.
One of the men recovered a bomb disguised as a portable charger in Moscow, which was to be attached with magnets to the car of a senior Defense Ministry official, the FSB said.
Another Russian was tasked with reconnaissance of senior Russian defense officials, he added, as part of a plot involving the delivery of a bomb disguised as a file of documents.
“An explosive device disguised as a portable charger (power bank), to which magnets are attached, had to be placed under the official car of one of the senior leaders of the Russian Defense Ministry,” the statement said.
The exact date of the planned attacks is unclear, although one of the suspects said he picked up a bomb on December 23, according to the FSB.
Russian state television showed what it said were images of some of the suspects who admitted to being recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services for bombings against Russian Defense Ministry officials.
Moscow holds Ukraine responsible for a series of high-profile assassinations on its soil intended to lower morale – and says the West is supporting a “terrorist regime” in kyiv.
Ukraine, which says Russia’s war against it poses an existential threat to the Ukrainian state, has made clear that it views these targeted killings as a legitimate tool.
Daria Dugina, the 29-year-old daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist, was killed in August 2022 near Moscow.
The New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence believed parts of the Ukrainian government authorized the killing.
U.S. officials later reprimanded Ukrainian officials for the assassination, the Times said. Ukraine has denied killing Dugina.
