Russia’s FSB arrests four over ‘terrorist’ plots, pro-Kyiv statements

Russia’s FSB security service said Thursday that it had arrested four people for plotting separate “terrorist attacks” against military sites or supporting Ukraine, the latest in a flurry of similar cases.

Two people were arrested in the Moscow-held southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, and arrests were also made in the border Belgorod region and Urals city of Yekaterinburg.

Russia said the two in Mariupol had made public statements in support of Ukraine, while the others were planning “terrorist attacks” against military sites inside Russia.

Moscow seized Mariupol in the first weeks of its 2022 offensive, devastating it with intense aerial bombardments and urban combat.

The FSB said the two arrested there had “published videos and comments on social media” supporting Kyiv and praising a 2023 attack on the Kerch Bridge, which links the annexed Crimean Peninsula to Russia, the state-run TASS news agency reported.

They face seven years in prison on charges of “justifying terrorism.”

The FSB also said it had arrested one person in the Belgorod border region who was planning a “terrorist attack” against Russian army sites.

It accused him of working with the “Russian Volunteer Corps,” one of the pro-Ukrainian militias that staged a series of armed raids on Russian border regions last week.

In a separate case, a man in Yekaterinburg was also arrested, found with homemade bombs he planned to plant at military facilities in the city, TASS reported.

The FSB said he was a member of the “Citizens of USSR” movement, a fringe group that does not recognize the fall of the Soviet Union and rejects Russian laws.

The FSB has announced a string of arrests over the last two weeks, mainly of Russians it says were collaborating with Ukraine or preparing attacks on military facilities.

The arrests spiked last week as pro-Ukrainian guerilla fighters, comprising anti-Kremlin Russians who have taken up arms for Kyiv, attacked Russian border settlements.