Russia’s security service has claimed it foiled a plot by Ukraine to assassinate a high-ranking Kremlin official inside Russia because the alleged goal visited a graveyard.
The declare by Russia’s Federal Security Service – the FSB – got here as residents of Kyiv skilled one other heavy night time of lethal Russian aerial assaults, with a minimum of three killed, in accordance to Ukrainian officers.
Ukrainian particular providers had been planning to goal the unnamed official, described as “one of the highest-ranking officials of the Russian state,” whereas he was visiting the graves of his family members at a cemetery outdoors Moscow, in accordance to a Friday assertion by Russia’s FSB.
The FSB additionally claimed in its assertion that Ukraine is planning comparable assaults inside Russia.
NCS couldn’t independently confirm Russia’s claims. But Ukraine has claimed responsibility for assassinating Russian officials in the past, together with a commander killed final month in Siberia.
Both Ukraine and Russia launched aerial assaults into one another’s territory in a single day into Friday, in accordance to authorities within the respective international locations.
In Kyiv, native authorities mentioned a minimum of three individuals had been killed and 26 wounded within the newest assaults. Among the wounded had been two youngsters and a pregnant lady, in accordance to the town’s army administration.
More than 15 buildings had been broken within the capital, together with residences and a medical facility, it added.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone assault focused the Russian port metropolis of Novorossiysk, wounding a minimum of 4 individuals and damaging an oil depot, in accordance to the governor of Krasnodar Krai.
Assassinations have turn into a hallmark of the struggle between Russia and Ukraine. Targeted killings inside Russia and Russian-occupied components of Ukraine have surged since 2022, according to monitoring group Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED).
There had been extra assassination makes an attempt inside Russia within the first three quarters of 2025 than the annual totals of the earlier three years, ACLED reported.
Last month, Ukraine said it assassinated a Russian officer, Veniamin Mazzherin, utilizing a automobile bomb. Mazzherin, deputy commander of a Russian army police unit in Kemerovo, southwest Siberia, allegedly helped lead a particular unit concerned in “war crimes and genocide against the Ukrainian people,” in accordance to Ukrainian Defense Intelligence.
In April, Russian General Yaroslav Moskalik was killed in a automobile explosion outdoors Moscow. Russian authorities mentioned they charged a “Ukrainian special services agent” with terrorism, although Ukraine didn’t declare any accountability for the incident.
A couple of months earlier than that, a prime Russian normal accused of utilizing chemical weapons in Ukraine was killed by a remotely detonated bomb planted in an electrical scooter outdoors an condo constructing in Moscow. A supply with information of the operation advised NCS on the time that Ukraine’s security providers had been behind the assassination.
In November 2023, Ukraine mentioned it was chargeable for the assassination of Mikhail Filiponenko, a lawmaker in a Kremlin-installed meeting within the occupied japanese Ukrainian metropolis of Luhansk. Filiponenko was additionally killed with a automobile bomb.
Ukraine has additionally seen assassinations. In July, a Ukrainian security providers officer was gunned down in broad daylight in Kyiv, with authorities blaming Russia’s security providers for the killing.