Russia’s Federal Security Service said on Thursday it had foiled several plots by Ukrainian intelligence services to kill high-ranking Russian officers and their families in Moscow using bombs disguised as power banks or document folders.
An Azerbaijan Airlines flight that crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday killing 38 people was downed by a Russian air defence system, four sources in Azerbaijan with knowledge of the investigation told Reuters.
Russia was willing to work with Donald Trump’s incoming administration to improve relations if the US had serious intentions to do so but it was up to Washington to make the first move, said Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday.
Russia ‘foils Ukrainian plots to kill senior officers’
Russia’s Federal Security Service said on Thursday it had foiled several plots by Ukrainian intelligence services to kill high-ranking Russian officers and their families in Moscow using bombs disguised as power banks or document folders.
On 17 December, Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service killed Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, in Moscow outside his apartment building by detonating a bomb attached to an electric scooter.
An SBU source confirmed to Reuters that the Ukrainian intelligence agency had been behind the hit. Russia said the killing was a terrorist attack by Ukraine, with which it has been at war since February 2022, and vowed revenge.
“The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation has prevented a series of assassination attempts on high-ranking military personnel of the Defence Ministry,” said the FSB.
“Four Russian citizens involved in the preparation of these attacks have been detained,” it said in a statement.
The FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said that the Russian citizens had been recruited by the Ukrainian intelligence services.
One of the men retrieved a bomb disguised as a portable charger in Moscow that was to be attached with magnets to the car of one of the Defence Ministry’s top officials, the FSB said.
Another Russian man was tasked with reconnaissance of senior Russian defence officials, it said, with one plot involving the delivery of a bomb disguised as a document folder.
“An explosive device disguised as a portable charger (power bank), with magnets attached, had to be placed under the official car of one of the senior leaders of the Russian Defence Ministry,” it said.
The exact date of the planned attacks was unclear, though one of the suspects said he had retrieved a bomb on 23 December, according to the FSB.
Russian state TV showed what it said was footage of some of the suspects who admitted to being recruited by Ukrainian intelligence for bombings against Russian defence ministry officials.
Moscow holds Ukraine responsible for a string of high-profile assassinations on its soil designed to weaken morale — and says the West is supporting a “terrorist regime” in Kyiv.
Ukraine, which says Russia’s war against it poses an existential threat to the Ukrainian state, has made clear it regards such targeted killings as a legitimate tool.
Darya Dugina, the 29-year-old daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist, was killed in August 2022 near Moscow. The New York Times reported that US intelligence agencies believe parts of the Ukrainian government authorised the killing.
US officials later admonished Ukrainian officials over the assassination, the Times said. Ukraine denied it killed Dugina.
Russian air-defence system downed Azerbaijan plane: sources
An Azerbaijan Airlines flight that crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday killing 38 people was downed by a Russian air defence system, four sources in Azerbaijan with knowledge of the investigation told Reuters.
Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 came down near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from an area of Russia in which Moscow has used air defence systems against Ukrainian drone strikes in recent months.
The Embraer passenger jet had flown hundreds of kilometres off its scheduled route from Azerbaijan’s Baku to Grozny, in Russia’s southern Chechnya region. It crashed on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea after what Russia’s aviation watchdog said was an emergency that may have been caused by a bird strike.
Officials did not explain why it had crossed the sea, but the crash happened after Ukrainian drone strikes this month hit Chechnya. The nearest Russian airport on the plane’s flight path was closed on Wednesday morning.
One of the Azerbaijani sources familiar with the Azerbaijani investigation into the crash told Reuters that preliminary results showed the plane was struck by a Russian Pantsir-S air defence system, and its communications were paralysed by electronic warfare systems on the approach into Grozny.
The source said: “No one claims that it was done on purpose. However, taking into account the established facts, Baku expects the Russian side to confess to the shooting down of the Azerbaijani aircraft.”
Videos of the crash site posted on social media and verified by Reuters showed what appeared to be shrapnel damage to the wreckage of the tail section of the plane.
Aviation security firm Osprey Flight Solutions said in an alert to airlines on Wednesday that footage of the wreckage and the circumstances around the airspace in southwest Russia indicated the possibility that the airliner was hit by some form of anti-aircraft fire.
Russia’s Dagestan and Chechnya regions have been targeted by Ukrainian weaponised military drones this month, with Russian air defences activated in response, said Osprey.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Russian defence ministry had reported the downing of 59 Ukrainian drones over several regions, it said.
Some were reportedly downed in closed air space over regions bordering Ukraine, including the Sea of Azov. Flight operations were reportedly temporarily suspended at Russia’s Kazan Airport due to the activity.
In addition, publicly available ADS-B flight tracking data shows that the aircraft experienced GPS jamming throughout its flight over southwest Russia, said the alert.
In Brussels, Nato called for a full investigation into the cause of the crash.
Russia: It’s up to Trump team to make first move to improve ties
Russia was willing to work with Donald Trump’s incoming administration to improve relations if the US had serious intentions to do so but it was up to Washington to make the first move, said Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday.
Trump, who will return as US president on 20 January, styles himself as a master dealmaker and has vowed to swiftly end the war in Ukraine but has not set out how he might achieve that beyond getting President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian counterpart President Volodymyr Zelensky to agree to end the fighting.
Trump’s designated Ukraine envoy, retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, told Fox News on 18 December that both sides were ready for peace talks and that Trump was in a perfect position to execute a deal to end the war.
“If the signals that are coming from the new team in Washington to restore the dialogue that Washington interrupted after the start of a special military operation [war in Ukraine], are serious, of course, we will respond to them,” Lavrov told reporters in Moscow.
“But the Americans broke [off] the dialogue, so they should make the first move,” Lavrov, Putin’s foreign minister for more than 20 years, told reporters in Moscow.
Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has left tens of thousands dead, displaced millions of people and triggered the biggest rupture in relations between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Russian drone attack injures eight in Ukraine
A Russian drone attack on the central market in the Ukrainian town of Nikopol injured eight on Thursday morning, said local authorities.
Seven of those injured were hospitalised after the strike damaged multiple stalls at the market, wrote Dnipropetrovsk governor Serhiy Lysak via the Telegram messaging app.
The drone strike comes after Russia’s Christmas Day attack on the country’s energy system killed one person in the region.
The Ukrainian military said on Thursday that it shot down 20 drones out of 31 launched by Russia overnight.
Of the 31 drones, 11 “imitator drones” did not reach their targets due to active engagement from the Ukrainian military, it added.
No time to sign new Ukraine gas transit deal this year – Putin
President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday there was no time left this year to sign a new Ukrainian gas transit deal, and laid the blame firmly on Ukraine for refusing to extend the agreement that brings gas to Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Austria.
“They announced that they would not renew the contract,” Putin said, adding that Kyiv was punishing Europe by the move.
The current five-year gas transit deal between Russia and Ukraine expires at the end of the year.
“There is no contract and it is impossible to conclude it in three to four days,” Putin said in a televised briefing.
Russian gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine are relatively small. Russia shipped about 15 billion cubic metres of gas via Ukraine in 2023 – only 8% of peak Russian gas flows to Europe via various routes in 2018-19.
The Soviet-era Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline brings gas from Siberia via the town of Sudzha – which is now under the control of Ukrainian military forces – in Russia’s Kursk region. It then flows through Ukraine to Slovakia.
In Slovakia, the gas pipeline splits into branches going to the Czech Republic and Austria.
Russia is ready to supply gas via Ukraine to any customer, but Putin said a lawsuit was making that impossible.
Putin also reiterated Russia was ready to supply gas to Europe via Poland through the Yamal-Europe pipeline.
All four Moscow airports resume work, says Russia’s aviation watchdog
Russia’s aviation watchdog said on Thursday all four Moscow airports had resumed work after the lifting of temporary restrictions that were introduced to ensure the safety of civil aircraft flights.
“Aircraft crews, air traffic controllers and airport services have taken all necessary measures to ensure flight safety — this is the main priority,” said the statement from Rosaviatsia.
Russia declares federal emergency over Black Sea oil spill
Russia declared a federal emergency on Thursday over an oil spill caused by two Russian tankers in the Black Sea, said the Emergencies Ministry.
The tankers were hit by a storm on 15 December. One split in half and the other ran aground.
The resulting spill has coated sandy beaches at and around Anapa, a popular resort, and caused serious problems for wildlife including seabirds, dolphins and porpoises. More than 10,000 people have been trying to clear it up.
Biden reaffirms support for weapons surge to Ukraine
US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he had asked the Defense Department to continue its surge of weapons deliveries to Ukraine, after condemning Russia’s Christmas Day attack on Ukraine’s energy system and some of its cities.
Russia attacked Ukraine on Wednesday with cruise and ballistic missiles, as well as drones, Ukraine said. The strikes wounded at least six people in the northeastern city of Kharkiv and killed one in the region of Dnipropetrovsk, the governors there said.
Nearly three years into the war, Washington has committed $175-billion in aid for Ukraine, but it is uncertain if the aid will continue at that pace under Trump.
“The purpose of this outrageous attack was to cut off the Ukrainian people’s access to heat and electricity during winter and to jeopardise the safety of its grid,” said Biden.
Keith Kellogg, Trump’s pick for special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, also criticised Wednesday’s attack.
“Christmas should be a time of peace, yet Ukraine was brutally attacked on Christmas Day,” said Kellogg. “The US is more resolved than ever to bring peace to the region.” DM