ROSTOV-ON-DON REGION, RUSSIA – JULY 15, 2019: Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officers detain two members of a cell of the Islamic State terrorist organization (banned in Russia). Video screen grab/ Russian Federal Security Service/TASS.
A drone sabotage plot targeting a key component of Moscow’s missile defense system and an electric power facility has been thwarted, and two agents of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) involved in preparing the attacks have been detained, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on October 26.
“The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation has thwarted the sabotage and terrorist activities of two individuals from the Transcaucasus, born in 1991 and 1998, who were acting as agents for the Security Service of Ukraine and were involved in the preparation of a terrorist attack,” the FSB said in a statement.
The SBU planned an attack by launching strike drones, the FSB added, revealing that the two agents were supposed to launch the attack drones in the Moscow region, with the subsequent operation of the drones being controlled from Ukrainian territory.
“The individuals were apprehended by officers of the Russian FSB while in the process of preparing to carry out a terrorist attack at an electric power facility, as well as at one of the key components of Moscow’s missile defense system,” the statement read.
The SBU agents retrieved first-person-view drones and components for improvised explosive devices from caches in the Smolensk and Kaluga regions for use in terrorist attacks, the statement added.
The arrests follow two other operations reported by Russian security services this month. On October 13, the FSB said it had detained a woman who had assembled nine explosives-equipped drones for a planned attack on the Baltimore military airfield near Voronezh. The drones were intended to strike military infrastructure and aircraft, according to the security agency.
On October 15, the FSB announced the arrest of a Swedish citizen in the Pskov region, saying he had entered Russia to sabotage military facilities after serving in a Ukrainian military drone unit. The agency said he was arrested near the border with Latvia and Belarus.
These recent plots resemble Operation Spider’s Web, in which Ukrainian intelligence used drones smuggled into Russia to strike air bases and damage Russian aircraft, including strategic bombers, more than a year ago.
Ukrainian intelligence is clearly still attempting to replicate the operation, expanding the scope of its targets from air bases to other strategic military facilities and even civilian infrastructure. These efforts, however, have been a complete failure so far.
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nuclear drones coming to moscow soon…heheheh