MOSCOW, June 3. /TASS/. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) has uncovered a ring of agents Ukrainian secret services had created for terrorist acts against Black Sea Fleet servicemen in Sevastopol.
"The Federal Security Service has uncovered a ring of agents of Ukrainian special services in the city of Sevastopol, created for committing acts of sabotage and terrorism against servicemen of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, as well as military, transportation and energy infrastructure facilities of the region. The security service's operatives detained five agents of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry and the Security Service of Ukraine, recruited in the Zaporozhye Region," the FSB’s public relations center has told TASS.
Earlier, they were convicted under Article 222.1 of the Criminal Code (illegal possession of explosives and explosive devices).
The investigative department of the FSB’s Crimea and Sevastopol Office initiated criminal cases against persons involved in plotting sabotage and terrorist acts in Sevastopol on instructions from Ukraine’s secret services under article 205 of the Criminal Code (terrorist act) and article 275 of the Criminal Code (treason).
The FSB said that explosive devices and other means of destruction had been delivered by from Ukraine by mail or by bus and planted in caches. The caches’ photos and coordinates were sent to Ukrainian supervisors, who subsequently set tasks for their agents to commit a specific act of sabotage or terrorism.
"All agents involved in plotting sabotage and terrorist acts were not familiar with each other. The Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense and the Security Service of Ukraine were certain their agents were safe, but Russia’s FSB fully controlled their activities, which made it possible to prevent terrorist acts," the FSB said.
FSB operatives searched the homes of the group’s members to seize three makeshift bombs ready for use, 5 kg of plastic explosives of British manufacture, 600 grams of TNT, electric fuses and radio-controlled detonators. Three caches with means of destruction were discovered. The Ukrainian agents are facing criminal punishment up to life imprisonment.