Russia detains man accused of plotting rail bombing in Crimea

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has detained a man for plotting a rail bombing in Crimea as a drone was downed over the Moscow-occupied peninsula.

Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014, has been targeted by Ukrainian drone raids and sabotage attacks as Kyiv tries to retake the peninsula.

The FSB said on Friday the suspect – a Russian citizen in his mid-40s – had been “collecting information on the deployment of Russian defence ministry facilities and units” and was preparing a railway bombing.

“In a hiding place he had organised [we] found and seized an improvised explosive device made using foreign-made plastic explosives,” it said.

It said the man had been acting on the “instructions of Ukrainian military intelligence” and had been remanded in custody.

Russia’s TASS news agency said the man was a resident of the Crimean city of Sevastopol.

Video footage on the agency’s website showed a man dressed in a black T-shirt and jeans being taken out of a police van. It also showed the man with a blurred face giving a statement about how he was recruited by the Ukrainian military intelligence.

The Russian-appointed governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, warned that transport infrastructure had become a main target for “terrorism” and that Ukrainian saboteurs would be punished.

“An unenviable fate awaits the Ukrainian agents. They will be found and punished,” he said.

He later said a Ukrainian drone had been shot down over the north of the peninsula but did not report any further details.