Russia says it foiled Ukrainian plot to kill officials

Authorities in Russia said on Thursday that a number of Ukrainian plots to kill senior Russian officers had been foiled.

"The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation has prevented a series of assassination attempts on high-ranking military personnel of the Defence Ministry," the FSB said.

"Four Russian citizens involved in the preparation of these attacks have been detained," it said in a statement.

Senior Russian defense officials targeted

In one of the instances reported, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said a Ukrainian agent had planted a bomb underneath the car of a Russian defense official, according to Russian state media agency TASS.

"It has been established that a Russian citizen recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services to carry out a terrorist act arrived in Moscow from Ukraine in November 2024 under the guise of a deportee in transit through Moldova and Georgia," TASS cited the FSB press office saying in a statement.

The FSB said another Ukrainian intelligence agent had been en route to delivering a bomb disguised as a gift to a Defense Ministry official but was apprehended before reaching the intended target.

The claims cannot be independently verified.

Russian general was killed in Moscow earlier this month

On December 17, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, chief of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed outside his apartment in Moscow after a bomb attached to an electric scooter was detonated.

Multiple media outlets said Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) was behind the attack, citing anonymous sources.

Russia's intelligence agency, the FSB, said it had detained a suspect in the killing.

Ukraine energy sites targeted by Russia on Christmas Day

Ukraine meanwhile experiencedpower outages in several regions due to a Christmas Day drone and missile attack which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said targeted the country's energy infrastructure.

"Putin deliberately chose Christmas to attack. What could be more inhumane? More than 70 missiles, including ballistic missiles, and more than a hundred attack drones. The target is our energy system," Zelenskyy said. 

kb/rm (Reuters, dpa)