The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on December 10 that it had detained a citizen with dual Russian-German citizenship on suspicion of preparing an act of sabotage on a railway line in Nizhny Novgorod, a city about 450 km east of Moscow.
The Russian Federal Security Service did not release the suspect's name but said he was male, born in 2003.
Russian authorities found an improvised explosive device (IED) at the suspect's home and evidence of correspondence with a member of Ukrainian special forces.
Russian officials say pro-Ukrainian sabotage groups have been behind several attacks on railways aimed at disrupting supplies to the frontline since the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out in February 2022.
Ukraine's domestic intelligence agency has also been accused of blowing up railway lines inside Russian territory.
On December 10, the Russian military news agency Zvezda released a video of a Russian man of German origin, whose face was blurred, confessing to a crime.
In the video, the man said he came to Russia in 2023 and had online contact with a man named Artyom who turned out to be a "member of the Ukrainian special forces".
The suspect also said that Artyom paid the suspect to burn a fuse box and paint pro-Ukrainian murals.
“The last mission he proposed to me was to blow up and derail a freight train,” the suspect shared.
Russian authorities have opened a criminal case against the suspect, according to the Federal Security Service of Russia. The agency also said it had detained other individuals along with the Russian citizen of German origin, but did not provide details about the others.
Last month, Russia’s Federal Security Service arrested German citizen Nikolai Gaiduk on suspicion of smuggling explosives and terrorism. Russia accused the German citizen of blowing up a pipeline at a gas distribution station in Russia’s Kaliningrad region earlier this year.