Kiev-backed Crimea terror plot foiled – FSB

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on Thursday that it has prevented a Kiev-orchestrated terror plot targeting the railroad system in Crimea.

According to an official statement, the FSB identified five residents of Crimea who had been recruited by the Ukrainian military to carry out a series of explosions aimed at paralyzing rail traffic in the peninsula, including the movement of military equipment.

The fifth suspect, a Russian citizen born in 1970 and the alleged leader of the group, was found dead following the detonation of an IED he was attempting to remove from a cache of explosives, the FSB said.

The alleged saboteurs are accused of collecting and transmitting information to Kiev regarding the location and movements of the Russian military, Crimea’s air defense facilities and energy infrastructure, the security of the Crimean Bridge and the transportation of explosive devices for the purposes of the Russian army.

The agency published footage of the suspects’ arrests and their subsequent interrogation. In the video, the detainees said they had been charged with planting explosives across the Crimean rail system, which were to halt certain trains which were targeted by Ukrainian missiles. The detainees confessed that they were operating on behalf of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and intelligence services.

The video also features a host of weapons and explosives officers discovered at the would-be saboteurs’ residences, including four IEDs, an assault rifle, a machine gun, cartridges and other weapons components. Communications equipment found along with the weapons confirmed the suspects’ contact with the Ukrainian intelligence services, the FSB claimed.

Nobody was identified by name in the statement and a criminal investigation has been launched into the case on charges of “preparation for a terrorist act” and “illegal acquisition, transfer, sale, storage and transportation of explosives or explosive devices.”

Earlier this month, the FSB said it had foiled another attempted terrorist attack in Crimea, also targeting the region’s railroad system. Officers detained a Russian couple who were allegedly attempting to plant an explosive device on a rail line near the village of Oktyabrskoe, just outside of the city of Kerch and who later confessed to working with Ukrainian intelligence services.