FSB Says It Thwarted 'Unprecedented' Terror Attack Targeting Senior Defense Ministry Official

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) announced that it has thwarted terrorist attacks described as 'unprecedented in scale and severity,' allegedly organized by Ukraine's intelligence services. The statement was disseminated through Russian state media.

According to the FSB, Ukraine was planning terrorist acts and sabotage using drones against military facilities, a leading defense industry enterprise, and personnel of Russia's Defense Ministry. The specific facilities and enterprise were not identified, nor were the names of targeted individuals disclosed.

One of the disrupted plots involved the assassination of a senior Defense Ministry officer. A suspect was detained in Moscow in connection with this plot. The suspect is a Russian woman born in 2001, whom the FSB claims Ukrainian intelligence recruited in 2024.

Investigators allege that a Ukrainian intelligence officer who communicated with the woman 'simulated a romantic relationship' and promised to continue it in Ukraine 'after all assignments had been completed.' In 2026, acting on his instructions, she rented an apartment in Moscow, where she used cameras to surveil the officer's home and vehicle, streaming the footage to Ukraine.

The FSB stated: 'In the rented apartment, she prepared disguises and food supplies for the covert stay of the direct perpetrator of the terrorist act, whose arrival was planned after her departure from Russia in transit through Turkey and Moldova to Ukraine.'

The woman, aged 25, has not been named. She faces charges of preparing a terrorist act and may also be charged with treason.

Russian state news agency TASS distributed video footage of the detention and interrogation. The footage shows masked FSB officers seizing the woman while she was walking her dog. She screams, and bystanders notice but do not intervene. The FSB did not specify when she was detained.