MOSCOW. June 6 (Interfax) - The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has said that the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry plotted a terrorist attack in Russia with the use of a so-called dirty bomb, and, to this end, an air group was formed and performed five combat missions, during which fuel and energy sector facilities in Russia's border districts were damaged.
"Plans of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine's Defense Ministry to perpetrate a terrorist attack in Russian territory using a so-called dirty bomb were uncovered during the investigation into an act of sabotage plotted in May 2023 to blow up long-range planes stationed at the Severny airfield in the Ivanovo region," the FSB press center told reporters on Tuesday.
Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate chief Kirill Budanov set up a separate service, which included light aircraft "to supply weapons to saboteur and reconnaissance groups in Russia and to deliver strikes by dropping bombs on fuel and energy facilities," the special service said.
"In particular, they worked on a plan to deliver and plant so-called dirty bombs fitted with timers in order to blow them up simultaneously and make the area unfit for people to live there," it said.
Since the beginning of the year, the Main Intelligence Directorate's air group has carried out five combat missions into Russian territory "during which fuel and energy facilities located in Russia's districts on the border with Ukraine were damaged," the FSB said.
"As a result of special operations, two pilots were detained and admitted to the terrorist attacks staged and plotted by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry," it said.
The light aircraft operations were coordinated by Military Unit No. 3449, also known as the "Legion", which is part of Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate, the FSB said.
The FSB said in May that Ukrainian special services' plot to stage a drone attack on the Severny military airfield in the Ivanovo region had been thwarted. Saboteurs planned to deliver explosives on an Aeroprakt A-32 light airplane from the Blistova village in Ukraine's Chernigov region, it said. The pilot and the members of the group were detained in the Tula region.
Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said last year that a dirty bomb was being created in Ukraine with the West's assistance.