MOSCOW, June 22. /TASS/. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) apprehended Ukrainian saboteurs who made attempts on the lives of local officials and plotted to blow up a railroad in Melitopol, the FSB press office told TASS on Thursday.

"The activity of a group of saboteurs, which was recruited by the Ukrainian Security Service [SBU] and established in Melitopol to conduct terrorist attacks in the Zaporozhye Region, has been curtailed. The detainees attempted to kill officials in the Zaporozhye Region, using homemade explosives that left several people injured, one of whom has died," the FSB said, adding that the terrorists were apprehended when extracting a homemade explosive device from a cache before planting it on a railroad track.

The probe revealed that the terrorists had plotted to blow up a train carrying military equipment and cargo for the Russian Army. "The sabotage was being plotted with the use of a homemade explosive device that was received by the group of criminals from people in the Ukrainian Security Service," the FSB specified.

This marked the second time a sabotage group has been apprehended in the Zaporozhye Region this week. On Wednesday, the local FSB division reported the apprehension of a sabotage group made up of Melitopol residents who had been recruited by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) to assassinate local officials. Components and manuals for making homemade explosives were found in their possession.