Two people have been detained in the Moscow region on suspicion of preparing to blow up a railway train carrying fuel and lubricants. The FSB announced the detentions, and Interfax reported the statement citing the agency’s Public Relations Center.
According to the FSB, the suspects were acting on instructions from a Ukrainian handler. The security service says they retrieved an improvised explosive device from a hiding place and intended to use it to stage the blast.
The agency also alleges that, before being detained, both suspects had carried out reconnaissance on the railway tracks and selected a location where the explosive device was supposedly meant to be planted.
The Public Relations Center said the detainees are giving confessions. The FSB added that they were identified through a “long-term operational investigation of a group of persons”, which, it says, made it possible to document attempts to obtain “means of terror” in the Moscow and Smolensk regions.
The FSB also released a video of the detention on social media. Judging by the footage, the operation took place on the grounds of a cemetery in the Moscow region.
At the end of the published video, one of the detainees says he had planned to blow up a fuel tanker.