Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced Saturday that it had thwarted an alleged plot by Ukraine to assassinate a high-ranking Russian military officer and a pro-Russian blogger. The FSB said the plan involved a bomb hidden in a portable music speaker.
The FSB, which succeeded the Soviet-era KGB, stated that a Russian citizen had communicated with an officer from Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency via the Telegram messaging app. Acting on the Ukrainian officer’s instructions, the individual allegedly retrieved an explosive device from a hiding spot in Moscow.
According to the FSB, the bomb was equivalent to 1.5 kilograms of TNT and packed with ball bearings to maximize impact. It was concealed in a portable music speaker. The names of the intended targets—one a Russian officer and the other a pro-Russian war blogger—were not disclosed.
Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency has not yet commented on the allegations.
Ukraine has previously indicated that targeted killings aimed at individuals it considers guilty of war crimes or critical to Russian operations are a legitimate part of its resistance against the invasion. Russia, however, denounces such actions as acts of terrorism, pointing to incidents like the 2022 assassination of Darya Dugina, daughter of nationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin.
The FSB’s statement comes shortly after the December 17 killing of Lieutenant General Kirillov, chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection Troops. He was killed outside his Moscow residence when a bomb attached to an electric scooter detonated. Ukraine accused him of promoting the use of banned chemical weapons, a claim Russia denies.
In response to the Kirillov killing, Russia has vowed retaliation. Meanwhile, critics like former U.S. Ukraine envoy Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg described such operations as “going too far” in an interview with Fox News on December 18.
REUTERS
