Russia’s Federal Security Service stated on Monday that it had detained a 57-year-old German woman with a bomb in her rucksack as part of what it cast as a false-flag operation directed by Ukrainian intelligence.
Unverified footage showed a woman lying down on the tarmac in a car park while armed men pointed their weapons at her – and a rucksack that was beside her. Sappers were then shown blowing up the rucksack.
The FSB claimed the German woman, who had a bomb with the equivalent of 1.5 kg of TNT, was targeting a law enforcement facility in the Stavropol region as part of a false flag operation directed by Ukraine.
The FSB said it had also detained a citizen from a country in Central Asia who thought he was acting on behalf of a “terrorist organisation” and had been due to detonate the bomb.
“The actions of the man were coordinated by employees of the Ukrainian special services under the guise of members of one of the international terrorist organisations banned in Russia,” the FSB said.
Reuters was unable to immediately verify the details of the report. Ukraine did not immediately comment.
A German foreign ministry spokesperson in Berlin said the ministry had taken note of the report but would not elaborate further.
Russia’s accusation against Ukraine came following the national head of Ukraine’s police patrol division, Yevhen Zhukov, resignation after a video showed officers running away during a shooting in Kyiv.
Six people were killed in the mass shooting while another eight, including a child, were injured, according to Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko.
“The police officers acted unprofessionally and disgracefully. As police officers, they should have been helping and rescuing our citizens. But they failed to assess the situation properly and left civilians in danger,” Zhukov said.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s defence ministry said it was working to procure 25,000 ground robotic systems to be deployed to the frontline in the first half of this year, its defence ministry said.
“Our goal — 100 per cent of frontline logistics should be performed by robotic systems,” defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov said.