MOSCOW, May 5. /TASS/. A terror attack on a Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant executive plotted by Ukrainian military intelligence agents has been thwarted by Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officers, the FSB press center told TASS on Friday.
"The Russian Federal Security Service has stopped the activities of a sabotage and terrorist group of Ukrainian special services agents on the territory of the Zaporozhye Region. As a result of measures taken at the preparation stage, a terrorist act against a Zaporozhye NPP executive was foiled," it said.
According to the FSB, the criminal activities were coordinated by officers of the Ukrainian defense ministry’s main intelligence directorate both directly and via a go-between in Finland. "The criminal activities were coordinated by Ukrainian special services both directly by officers of the Ukrainian defense ministry’s main intelligence directorate Alexander Umansky and Andrey Nikulin, agent recruiter Viktoria Budnikova, born in 1974, and via mediator Yulia Tkachuk, born in 1969, who is staying in Finland, a country that recently joined the military-political bloc NATO," the FSB said.
A ready-to-use explosive device, as well as automatic firearms, ammunition, and explosives were seized. "It has been established that the members of the sabotage and terrorist group were collecting data about the location of Russian military facilities, army and law enforcement personnel, as well as pro-Russian locals," the FSB said, adding that a probe is underway on the group’s involvement in other acts of sabotage and terrorism.
Two members of the sabotage and terrorist group, Ukrainian nationals born in 1984 and 1979, were arrested. A criminal case was opened on charges of plotting a terror attack (part 3 of article 30 and part 2 of article 205 of the Russian Criminal Code), the press center added.