The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) says it has thwarted a plot by Russia’s military intelligence GRU to carry out a series of terror attacks in Kyiv planned for 9 May, Russia’s Victory Day.
According to the SBU, its counterintelligence operation prevented four planned bombings in the capital on 9 May. It resulted in the reported arrest of Russian GRU agents who were planting explosive devices at four locations, including the building supply stores belonging to a major retail chain and in a car, parked near a café.
The SBU says the improvised explosive devices were disguised as tea packages and contained timers, detonators, plastic explosives, and incendiary mixtures intended to cause large fires.
The report claims the Russian plan was for the explosives to detonate during peak hours at the stores to maximize civilian casualties. The agency also alleges the agents aimed to plant bombs among flammable materials to hinder firefighting efforts.
The SBU states that through these attacks on 9 May, Russia’s GRU sought to destabilize the situation in Ukraine and send a symbolic message about an alleged Russian underground present in Kyiv awaiting the arrival of “the Russian world.”
The SBU says it has identified the GRU officer Yuriy Sizov, serving in military unit No. 92154, as the handler coordinating the Russian terror plot in Kyiv. It claims Sizov personally gave orders to the recruited agents and even recorded a video instructing on planting an explosive device at a store belonging to the same retail chain in Moscow region.
The agency states it had been monitoring Sizov’s activities for an extended period and documented the criminal actions of the saboteur network step-by-step. It notes Sizov was also responsible for a failed Russian sabotage attempt in Ukraine’s Lviv region planned for February 2024, which the SBU claims to have prevented in advance as well.
The detainees have been notified of suspicions corresponding to their crimes under Articles 111 (treason), 113 (subversive activities), and 258 (terrorist act) of Ukraine’s Criminal Code. They face potential life sentences. The operation was conducted under the procedural guidance of the Lviv Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
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