Moscow, Dec. 26 (LaPresse) – The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has arrested four individuals accused of involvement in an alleged Ukrainian plot to assassinate senior officials of the Ministry of Defense. The FSB stated that the suspected organizers were planning to kill one senior officer using a remote-controlled car bomb, while another high-ranking military officer was targeted with an explosive device hidden in an envelope. The agency did not disclose the names of the targeted officials.
The arrests come just over a week after the death of Igor Kirillov, the commander of the Russian Armed Forces’ nuclear, chemical, and biological defense troops, who was killed on December 17 by a bomb hidden in an electric scooter parked outside his residential building as he was leaving for work. Kirillov's assistant also died in the attack, which was later claimed by Ukraine.
For Kirillov's assassination, the FSB has detained a suspect, an Uzbek citizen, who is alleged to have been recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services.