Pennsylvania (BN24) – Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced Tuesday that it has arrested a woman accused of detonating a bomb on the Trans-Siberian Railway in what it claims was a Ukrainian intelligence-directed act of sabotage.
The suspect, described only as a Russian woman born in 1974, allegedly carried out the attack in August in the Zabaikalsky region of eastern Siberia, the FSB said. According to the agency, she manufactured a homemade explosive device from readily available materials, placed it on the railway tracks, and triggered it.
“She recorded the moment of the explosion on her mobile phone and sent the footage to her handler in order to receive a reward,” the FSB said in a statement, which accused Ukrainian operatives of directing the sabotage effort.
The agency did not release the woman’s name but stressed that she was acting under instruction from Ukrainian intelligence services. It also warned Russians that it was monitoring platforms such as Telegram and WhatsApp for signs of recruitment by Ukrainian networks seeking to enlist citizens in sabotage campaigns.
The FSB also disclosed a separate case in which a man from the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, was sentenced to 18 years and six months in prison for transporting explosives. Authorities allege he was recruited via Telegram by a banned “terrorist organization” sympathetic to Ukraine. Investigators said he retrieved explosives from a hidden cache and was awaiting further orders when he was detained. He was later convicted by a military tribunal.
The alleged sabotage on the Trans-Siberian Railway underscores heightened security concerns in Russia as the war in Ukraine nears its third year. While Moscow has frequently accused Kyiv of orchestrating attacks inside Russian territory, Ukrainian officials rarely comment on such claims.
