MOSCOW, May 30. /TASS/. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has apprehended four residents of Crimea who plotted terrorist attacks on the peninsula’s railways on an instruction from the Ukrainian military intelligence to paralyze train traffic, the FSB press office told TASS on Thursday.
"A series of subversive-terrorist acts at railway transport facilities in the Republic of Crimea plotted by Ukrainian intelligence agencies has been thwarted. In order to carry out terrorist attacks, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Department has picked and recruited five residents of the Republic of Crimea who were supporters of the Kiev regime," the press office said in a statement.
The Ukrainian military intelligence agents plotted terrorist attacks at railways in various areas of Crimea to paralyze train traffic, including the traffic of military trains, the FSB specified.
"The general supervision of the criminal group was exercised by a Russian national born in 1970 who sustained fatal wounds upon the detonation of an improvised explosive when it was retrieved from an arms cache. The other members of the subversive group have been apprehended and are giving confessionary evidence," the FSB press office said.
In addition, the recruited agents fulfilled the assignments of gathering information on the location and movement of Russian troops, air defense sites, fuel and energy facilities, measures to protect and defend the Crimean Bridge and the tasks of preparing arms caches and transporting explosives, it said.
At the places of the suspects’ residence, FSB operatives found four improvised explosive devices made up of electric detonators and briquettes of C-4 plastic explosive weighing about 1 kg each, an AK-74 assault rifle, a TT pistol, a Degtyaryov machine gun, cartridges of various caliber and parts of weapons, and also communications equipment confirming their contacts with Ukrainian intelligence services, it said.
Investigators have opened criminal probes against the suspects on counts of part 1 of article 30 and part 1 of article 205 ("Preparations for a Terrorist Attack") and part 3 of article 222.1 ("Illegal Circulation of Explosives or Explosive Devices") of Russia’s Criminal Code, the press office said.
"The suspects have confessed to the wrongdoing and are actively cooperating with the investigative team," it said.