Russia's FSB foils attack targeting defense industry leader
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Russia's Federal Security Service says the attack was planned by the Ukrainian special services against one of the heads of a defense industry enterprise of Russia.
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Investigators work at the blast scene, which killed the commander of Russian armed forces' chemical, biological and radiation defense troops, Igor Kirillov, and his assistant, according to the Russian Investigative Committee, outside a residential building in Moscow, on December 17, 2024. (AFP)
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) announced Wednesday that it had thwarted a "terrorist attack" planned by Ukrainian special services in the Moscow Region against a senior executive from a defense industry enterprise that supplies products to the Russian Ministry of Defense.
"The Federal Security Service of Russia has prevented a terrorist attack in the Moscow Region planned by the Ukrainian special services against one of the heads of a defense industry enterprise of Russia, which makes products for the Russian Ministry of Defense," the FSB stated.
As part of the operation, seven Russians living in the Moscow, Sverdlovsk regions, and Perm Territory were arrested, including three minors. The group had been involved in conducting surveillance on the target's vehicle parking area, assembling an improvised explosive device (IED) from materials retrieved from a concealed location, and planting it under the vehicle to carry out the attack, the statement pointed out.
"The group members are currently giving confessions and cooperating with the investigation," the FSB said.
It indicated that the plot had been coordinated by Ukrainian special services using foreign internet messaging platforms, a fact corroborated by data obtained from the communication devices of the detainees.
Ukrainian special services used the Element messenger to communicate with the group, providing them with instructions for the attack, According to one of the detainees, one of the detainees mentioned during the questioning broadcast by the Rossiya 24 channel.
The broadcaster, citing FSB data, said that the attack was intended to be framed as a dispute over an unpaid debt to an unnamed "client".
Ukraine claims responsibility for assassination of Russian general
Last week, a source within Ukraine's SBU security service told AFP that the killing of senior Russian military official Igor Kirillov in Moscow was a "special operation" carried out by the agency.
Kirillov, the highest-ranking Russian military official to be targeted on Russian soil, was killed alongside his assistant when an explosive device attached to a scooter detonated outside an apartment building in southeastern Moscow.
"The liquidation of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, chief of the Russian Armed Forces' radiation, chemical and biological defence troops is a special operation by the SBU," the source stated.
A Russian court charged Uzbek citizen Akhmadzhon Kurbonov and ordered his detention until February in connection with the killing of Kirillov.
Moscow's Basmanny court charged Kurbonov with committing a "terrorist act," possessing explosives illegally, and "fabricating arms" following his arrest over the assassination.
He faces the possibility of life imprisonment.
In footage released by Russian security services, Kurbonov admitted he was promised "$100,000 and a European passport" for carrying out the attack.
He was taken into custody shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the killing as an act of "terrorism".
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