MOSCOW, August 9. /TASS/. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has apprehended a Russian national recruited by Ukraine’s intelligence who blew up a gas pipeline in Crimea in June, the FSB press office told TASS on Wednesday.
"The criminal activity of a Russian citizen born in 1980 complicit in committing a subversive and terrorist act at an energy infrastructure facility in the Republic of Crimea on an assignment from Ukrainian special services has been thwarted," the press office said in a statement.
According to the FSB’s data, on an assignment from his Ukrainian handlers, the suspect blew up the gas pipeline in the settlement of Koreiz on June 23 this year, using an improvised explosive handed over to him through a cache.
"During his stay in Pavlograd in the Dnepropetrovsk Region in June 2022, the suspect was recruited by Ukrainian special services and underwent training in subversive and reconnaissance activity, following which he was sent to the Republic of Crimea," the FSB press office said.
In his garage, FSB operatives seized 2 kg of a C-4 foreign-made plastic explosive, two EDP military-purpose electric detonators, two electric ignitors and an improvised high-explosive charge, it said.
"The Russian national admitted to his collaboration with Ukrainian special services in plotting and carrying out the subversive and terrorist act. Measures are underway to establish all the circumstances of the detained individual’s unlawful activity and his complicity in other crimes on Russian territory," the FSB press office said.
Under a criminal probe opened under part 1 of article 205 ("Terror Act") and part 1 of article 222.1 ("Illegal Acquisition, Transfer, Sale, Storage, Transportation, Conveyance or Carriage of Explosive Substances or Explosive Devices") of Russia’s Criminal Code, the suspect has been remained in custody, it said.