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A view across the Kerch Strait shows smoke rising above a fuel depot near the Crimean bridge in the village of Volna in Russia’s Krasnodar region. Photo: Reuters

Ukraine war: Russia’s FSB arrests Crimea ‘sabotage’ suspects after attacks

  • Russia’s FSB said the group had planned to assassinate officials including the Moscow-installed head of Crimea
  • Russian territory and Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, have been hit in recent days by a series of attacks
Ukraine war
Agencies

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Wednesday it had arrested seven people connected with Ukrainian intelligence and accused them of planning “a series of high-profile sabotage and terrorist acts” in Russian-annexed Crimea.

In a statement, the FSB said the group had planned attacks against Russian-installed officials including local governor Sergei Aksyonov. It said it had seized explosives identical to those used to attack railways in the peninsula in February.

In a statement, Aksyonov said the same group was behind both alleged incidents. He said, without providing evidence, that there was no doubt that the Ukrainian government was behind them.

Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and used it as one of the launch pads for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

A huge fire at a fuel depot in Sevastopol, Crimea on Saturday. Photo: Telegram/@razvozhaev via AFP

The arrests came as attacks on infrastructure objects in the south of Russia have become more frequent in recent days.

On Wednesday, Russian emergency services blamed a large fire at a fuel depot on the Taman peninsula, which adjoins Crimea across the Kerch Strait, on a drone falling on the facility.

The outskirts of the settlement of Volna are home to a large terminal for oil and oil products, which are then shipped across the Black Sea. According to media reports, a cistern containing 20,000 cubic metres of fuel caught fire.

Smoke and flames could be seen as far as the Crimean peninsula opposite.

The fire currently covers across an area of 1,200 square metres, the head of the district administration Fyodor Babenkov announced, saying that he fire brigade was trying to contain the flames and prevent them from spreading to other cisterns.

At the weekend, a fuel reservoir in Crimea was blown up by a drone attack. In the western Russian region of Bryansk, two trains derailed after explosions on Monday and Tuesday.

All these regions are close to Ukraine. Russian officials say pro-Ukrainian sabotage groups have made multiple attacks there.

Ukraine has followed its usual line of not claiming responsibility for the attacks, which came as Kyiv said it is finalising preparations for a spring offensive announced weeks ago.

The strikes also come as Russia gears up to celebrate May 9, a holiday marking the Soviet victory over the Nazis that has become a central event during President Vladimir Putin’s rule.

Meanwhile, the United States plans to announce a new US$300 million military aid package for Ukraine that will for the first time include a short-range air-launched rocket, two US officials said on Tuesday.

The Hydra 70 is an air-launched unguided rocket made by General Dynamics. The rockets are typically launched from pods attached to aircraft.

The security assistance package would be the 37th approved by the US for Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, for a total of nearly US$36 billion.

Reuters, Agence France-Presse and dpa

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