Ukrainian bomb plot foiled – FSB

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claims it has foiled Ukrainian plans to assassinate officials in the city of Melitopol in Zaporozhye Region. Kiev’s military intelligence service had recruited several local residents for the planned bomb attack, an FSB statement said.

Ukraine provided agents with the components for an improvised explosive device and instructions on how to assemble it, the FSB said on Wednesday. The would-be perpetrators were detained and are now facing terrorism charges.

Footage released by the agency showed at least three people being arrested and questioned. Some can be heard confessing to working on behalf of the Ukrainian military.

The FSB did not disclose the identities of the purported agents and their targets, blurring the faces of the detainees and censoring the names they provided. It claimed it had recovered material evidence proving that the group was working for the Ukrainian special services.

Kirill Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR), has previously confirmed in interviews that his unit was responsible for the murders of “many” Russian public figures.

There have been multiple bomb attacks against Russian officials in regions which Kiev still claims sovereignty over. Zaporozhye Region is one of four territories which voted in referendums last year to leave Ukraine and become part of Russia, although Kiev dismissed the votes as a “sham.”