MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/. An agent of the Ukrainian special services was apprehended while attempting to plant an explosive device under the car of a senior Russian defense official, according to a video released by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) on Thursday.

"I didn’t have time to plant the bomb as I was arrested," the attacker said.

Earlier, the FSB reported foiling a series of assassination attempts targeting high-ranking Russian generals in Moscow.

The Ukrainian intelligence services planned to blow up one of Russian Defense Ministry officials remotely and for this purpose their agent was assigned with planting a bomb under his car, the FSB said.

The detainee said that he had been recruited in Ukraine where he had moved to live in November 2020.

"I arrived in Russia in transit through Moldova and Georgia and subsequently maintained communication with [staffer of Ukrainian intelligence services] Alexey Nikolayevich through my wife whom they had also involved in that activity," the detainee said.

The apprehended Ukrainian agent said that he had retrieved the explosive from a cache in the Moscow Region and tested its detonator.

"The bomb was intended to be detonated remotely by operatives of Ukrainian special services. At the supervisor’s instruction, I began to wait for a command to plant it under the car. I understood and was aware that the explosive was intended to be planted under the service car," the detainee said.

The FSB also published a video of the agent’s talk with his wife currently living in Ukraine who handed over instructions to him.

"You will do what you are assigned to do and they will pay you. Organizational issues are being resolved. This is what the situation is now," she said.