Somewhere in Crimea, according to Russia’s Federal Security Service, a man had hidden a bomb. On Friday, the FSB said it found it.
The agency announced the detention of a Russian citizen in his mid-40s, accused of plotting to blow up a railway on the peninsula. In the hiding place he had set up, officers “found and seized an improvised explosive device made using foreign-made plastic explosives,” the FSB said. Russia’s TASS news agency reported that he is a resident of Sevastopol.
The FSB said the man had been “collecting information on the deployment of Russian defence ministry facilities and units”. It said he acted on the “instructions of Ukrainian military intelligence”, and he has been remanded in custody.
TASS published video of the arrest. It shows a man in a black T-shirt and jeans stepping out of a police van. In a second clip his face is blurred as he describes, in a statement, how Ukrainian military intelligence recruited him.
The governor’s warning
Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-appointed governor of Crimea, said transport infrastructure had become a main target for “terrorism” and that Ukrainian saboteurs would be punished. “An unenviable fate awaits the Ukrainian agents. They will be found and punished,” he said.
Later he said a Ukrainian drone had been shot down over the north of the peninsula. He gave no further details.
Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Since then the peninsula has been hit by Ukrainian drone raids and sabotage attacks, as Kyiv tries to retake it.
Sources
- Russia detains man accused of plotting rail bombing in Crimea
- Russia Detains Man Accused of Plotting Crimea Bombing – The Moscow Times
Sources
- Russia detains man accused of plotting rail bombing in Crimea
- Russia's FSB Says It Foiled Ukrainian Railway Attack in Crimea
