Russia claims it foiled Ukrainian plot to sabotage energy link

A Ukrainian agent tried to sabotage infrastructure in Russia involved in exporting energy to Turkey and Europe, Russia’s domestic security service, the FSB, reported on Thursday.

The FSB said it busted a Russian national in his late 40s when he was recovering two powerful improvised explosive devices that he was supposed to plant at the target. 

The man was described as an agent of Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, who had been recruited when he visited the country. The alleged would-be saboteur was acting on orders from Kiev, the statement claims.

The Russian agency released footage that it said shows the plotter taking explosives from the weapons cache, and his subsequent arrest.

The items in his possession included “means of communication with a record of exchanges with his SBU handler, instructions for assembling IEDs and transferring money as well as coordinates of the planned bombing,” the FSB said.

Four other people were providing material support to the plot, the agency alleged. They are all Russian nationals and have been taken into custody, it said.