Illustrative image/ Russian Federal Security Service/TASS.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on July 10 that it had foiled a Ukrainian plot to sabotage the country’s only aircraft carrier and another aimed at assassinating senior military officials.
In a statement, the agency said that Kiev’s intelligence service began plotting a “terrorist attack” on the heavy aircraft cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov last March. The large vessel was docked in the port city of Murmansk in northern Russia at the time.
The plot began when a Ukrainian agent using the alias “Oleg” contacted an unnamed Russian naval officer serving on the vessel, according to the FSB. During that conversation, Oleg exerted “psychological pressure” on the officer to convince him to stage a terrorist attack.
This included threats to prosecute him on trumped-up charges of financing the Ukrainian military. The naval officer was promised a large sum of money and was told that he could flee abroad using forged documents after the sabotage, the statement said.
“After the [Russian] officer informed security services, measures to document Oleg’s unlawful activity and expose potential agents and accomplices of the Kiev regime were taken as part of an operative game under the full control of the Russian security services,” the FSB reported.
Kiev’s intelligence service sent components for assembling an explosive incendiary device to the Russian serviceman via a delivery company, according to the agency.
“He was assured that as soon as they received video confirmation of an arson attack on the aircraft carrier he would be evacuated to Finland and that papers and remuneration had already been prepared for him at a cache on the border,” the FSB said.
“However, as was expected, the curator turned off his telecom devices and deleted the accounts he used on the messengers upon receiving a staged video message showing a mock terrorist attack on the Admiral Kuznetsov,” it added.
The FSB’s investigative department at Russia’s Northern Fleet has opened a criminal probe to identify Oleg and his accomplices. The plotters could face up to life in prison if caught and convicted. All organizers and accomplices in the crime, including foreigners, have been issued warrants for their arrest, the FSB added.
Commissioned in 1991, the Admiral Kuznetsov has taken part in numerous deployments, including a mission in the Mediterranean as part of Russia’s military operations against ISIS and other terrorist groups in Syria.
In 2018, the aircraft carrier was damaged during the sinking of a dry dock and, a year later, a major fire broke out on the ship.
Following the FSB’s announcement, a source in the defense industry told the TASS news agency that repairs on Admiral Kuznetsov were proceeding in normal mode.
“The repairs on the aircraft carrier at one of the enterprises of the Zvyozdochka Ship Repair Center proceed as planned,” the source said.
The Admiral Kuznetsov is expected to return to service with the Russian Navy next year after modernization and repairs are completed.
Separately, the FSB said that it had arrested a 30-year-old Russian national working for Kiev’s intelligence service, who is said to have tried to organize the delivery of three high-yield explosive devices disguised as presents to unnamed senior officials with the Russian Defense Ministry. The explosives were meant to detonate upon confirmation of delivery, but this did not occur, the FSB added.
Following the start of the special military operation in Ukraine, the FSB foiled numerous terror plots orchestrated by Kiev’s intelligence service. Not all of these plots were directed at military targets. Some targeted civilians, including journalists and activists.
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