On November 29, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) announced that it had blocked a sabotage plan to blow up a strategic gas pipeline in Moscow, alleging that this was a plot directed by Ukrainian intelligence and used a Russian citizen to carry it out.
According to the FSB, the 56-year-old Russian man was detained in 2024 at a detention center for immigration violators in Ukraine. It was here that Ukrainian intelligence agencies were said to have approached and recruited him, before pushing him back to Russia under the name of deportation.
The FSB believes this is a way for Ukraine to deploy a residential worker to conduct sabotage when the opportunity arises.
The Russian Security Service said that in November, Ukrainian "commanders" proactively contacted the suspect, assigned him tasks and detailed instructions: Buying a car for transportation; buying an electric drill to open a hole to access the pipeline; going to a location to receive homemade explosive devices, disguised as construction sugar pipes.
According to the FSB, the suspect's plan was to drill the layer of soil above the pipeline, plant the explosive device and then leave Russia to a third country to return to Ukraine.
The suspect was arrested while drilling at the designated location, the FSB said.
Moscow has repeatedly accused Kiev of being behind sabotage acts aimed at infrastructure in Russia during the conflict. The FSB said this was not the only case of the week.
The agency previously said it had killed two subjects who tried to place the equipment to cause train rolls on the railway bridge connecting Novoaltaysk and Biysk, which was described as an act of "a terrorist group coordinating with Ukrainian intelligence". The two suspects were shot down after firing back and forth.
Russian authorities affirmed that the trend of sabotage of civil and transport infrastructure shows that Ukraine is switching to using "terrorism" tactics, in the context of many difficulties on the battlefield.
At the same time, Ukraine is also facing a major corruption scandal involving figures close to President Volodymyr Zelensky, leading to the departure of two ministers and the Chief of the Office of President Andrey Yermak.
