MOSCOW, December 11. /TASS/. Members of an extensive clandestine network of Ukrainian agents active in Crimea are in custody and are confessing to their crimes, the press service of Russia’s Investigative Committee told TASS.
"All of the accused are in custody; they are testifying and cooperating with the investigation. In cooperation with the operational services, other facts of illegal actions by the accused and their accomplices are being established," the statement said.
It was established that on June 19, on the instructions of a handler from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), one of the members of the network activated an explosive device, which he had previously made himself, planted in a Toyota Land Cruiser. As a result of the sabotage, three officers of the Zaporozhye Region’s military-civilian administration who were in the car were seriously injured but received timely medical treatment. A 39-year-old native of the Vinnitsa Region in western Ukraine was charged with attempted murder of three people and illegal trafficking in explosives. Two other residents of Feodosia, Crimea, both citizens of Ukraine, were also charged with attempted murder of three people.
In addition, a Czech Republic national, who lived for some time in Simferopol, Crimea, is charged with attempted murder of a serviceman. On the afternoon of September 23, near an apartment building on Sadovaya Street in Dzhankoy in northern Crimea, an SBU agent activated an explosive device he had planted under a Chevrolet Aveo car. However, due to circumstances beyond his control, the assailant was unable to carry through with his criminal intent.
Agent network
It was reported earlier that Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), acting in coordination with the Russian Investigative Committee, interdicted the activities of an extensive network of agents acting under deep cover and run by Ukrainian intelligence agencies in 2023, which was established in the Republic of Crimea under the control of so-called Western handlers for the purpose of perpetrating high-profile acts of sabotage and terrorism targeting government officials, Russian military personnel and FSB officers, as well as the peninsula’s transport and energy facilities. In total, according to the FSB, 14 acts of sabotage and terrorism were thwarted. Ten people have already been sentenced for plotting subversive and terrorist attacks.
The plotted attacks had been targeted against Crimean Head Sergey Aksyonov, Crimean Parliament Chairman Vladimir Konstantinov, Yalta Mayor Yanina Pavlenko, pro-Russian blogger Alexander Talipov and public activist Oleg Tsaryov.
The FSB also detained 18 agents and accomplices of Ukrainian intelligence services for involvement in five acts of sabotage on railroad tracks in the Simferopolsky and Kirovsky districts of the Republic of Crimea and near the city of Feodosia, as well as in gas pipeline explosions in Simferopol and Koreiz, and the blowing up of cars belonging to a Zaporozhye Region administration official and Russian Defense Ministry troops taking part in the special military operation.