Moscow said Friday it had arrested a dual Russian-Italian national for carrying out sabotage attacks on military installations and a railroad under the orders of Ukrainian military intelligence.
Russian authorities have opened dozens of cases into alleged sabotage at key infrastructure and production facilities, as well as attacks on military recruitment centers since launching its invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said in a statement that the detained dual national, who is a native of central Russia’s Ryazan region, had derailed a freight train last month using an explosive device.
The man, who is 35 years old, “placed homemade explosive devices on the railway line,” the FSB said, adding that he was also responsible for an earlier attack on an airfield in the same region.
It claimed the Russian-Italian had “confessed to having been recruited by the Ukrainian military intelligence service” in February.
The FSB also said the man confessed to having undergone training in sabotage in neighboring EU and NATO member state, Latvia, with the Latvian special services, before returning to Ryazan a month later.
Law enforcement said that in a search of his home, components for explosives and homemade devices were seized.
