MOSCOW, December 1. /TASS/. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has eliminated an agent of Ukraine's military intelligence agency during an attempted attack on a Russian Defense Ministry officer, the FSB said in a statement.

"The Federal Security Service has prevented a terrorist attack on a senior Russian Defense Ministry officer, which the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) planned to conduct in Crimea," the statement reads.

According to the FSB, a Ukrainian national recruited by GUR was tasked with blowing up the officer in his car using an explosive device. "The attacker was neutralized when planting explosives under the car as he put up armed resistance," the statement adds. Communication means the man used for maintaining contact with his handler and Western-made components of an explosive device were seized from him.

The FSB identified the mastermind of the attack and detained an accomplice of his. "It was established that the terrorist attack had been planned by GUR officer Rustem Fakhriyev, born in 1984. One of his accomplices, a Crimean resident, was detained," the FSB noted.

A criminal investigation has been opened into the detained person based on Article 205.1 of the Russian Criminal Code ("Assistance to terrorist activities"). A court ruled that he be taken into custody.

The FSB warned that Ukrainian intelligence agencies continued to actively search for potential attackers and saboteurs on the Internet, including social media and messaging apps, in order to inflict damage on Russia. "Secret collaboration with foreign governments, as well as with international or foreign organizations, is prohibited. Under Russian laws, those who commit such crimes face sentences up to life imprisonment," the FSB stressed.