A Ukrainian terrorist plot involving an unwitting suicide bomber has been thwarted in the Russian port city of Sevastopol, the Federal Security Service (FSB) has said.
The agency said a Ukrainian intelligence handler persuaded a local resident to carry a portable speaker to the FSB’s regional headquarters, telling him it would be used for surveillance as part of an internal investigation. Officials said the device actually concealed an improvised explosive meant to detonate at the site. Security guards intercepted the device and found the explosives before they could be triggered.
Officials released a record of what they said were instructions given by the Ukrainian handler, who claimed the unwitting accomplice would be offered a job at the FSB, should he prove capable in the fake counter-espionage operation. The job was expected to take a couple of minutes and supposedly necessitated that the suspect scan mobile phones in the HQ security checkpoint to detect traitors.
Russian investigators claim they have identified the Ukrainian agent who orchestrated the plot. The same person was allegedly behind a similar attempt to bomb the security checkpoint of the FSB HQ in Simferopol, which was reported by the agency last August. In that case, a 54-year-old woman from Volgograd Region was tricked into delivering a bomb to the Crimean city disguised as a Christian icon.
The FSB named the suspected mastermind as Ivan Krinov, a lieutenant in the Ukrainian military’s Special Operations Forces, currently based in Odessa with his family. The statement said Russia will seek to charge him with terrorism and have him put on an international wanted list.
The security service urged Russian citizens to be cautious about Ukrainian scams aimed at recruiting saboteurs. By acting to ensure the deaths of perpetrators, Kiev “eliminates unwanted witnesses and can avoid paying them any reward,” the statement stressed. Moscow officials say Kiev is increasingly resorting to terrorist attacks inside Russia because the Ukrainian military is unable to secure victory on the battlefield.