Moscow said today it had arrested a dual Russian-Italian national for carrying out sabotage attacks on military installations and a train line under the orders of Ukrainian military intelligence.
Moscow has opened dozens of cases into alleged sabotage at key infrastructure and production facilities, as well as attacks on military recruitment centres since its military intervention in Ukraine began.
The FSB security services said in a statement the suspect — a native of the Ryazan region south of the capital — had derailed a freight train using an explosive device last month.
The improvised explosive derailed 19 train carriages in early November in the Ryazan region, the FSB said.
The individual, born in 1988, “placed homemade explosive devices on the railway line,” it said, adding that the suspect was also responsible for an earlier attack on an airfield in the same region.
It claimed the man had “confessed to having been recruited by the Ukrainian military intelligence service” in February.
It also said the suspect confessed to having undergone training in sabotage in neighbouring EU and Nato member state, Latvia, with the Latvian special services, before returning to Ryazan a month later.
The statement also said that in a search of his home, components for explosives and homemade devices were seized.
