Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Thursday it had arrested four alleged members of a pro-Ukraine paramilitary group preparing attacks on Russian territory, including poisoning Russian soldiers.
The four were arrested in the city of St. Petersburg, the FSB said in a statement.
“The FSB has put an end to the illegal activities in St. Petersburg of a clandestine cell of the Ukrainian paramilitary group, Russian Volunteer Corps, that was acting in the interests of Ukrainian intelligence services,” it said.
The four people “were planning to poison, with a very toxic substance, food products that were destined as humanitarian aid to the Russian soldiers” fighting in Ukraine, it said.
The four were also allegedly “carrying out reconnaissance on critical infrastructure and transport sites… in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region in order to then prepare attacks,” it said.
Russia this week has faced waves of drone strikes, including in the northwestern Leningrad region, near St. Petersburg.
The Russian Volunteer Corps, along with the Freedom of Russia Legion and Siberian Battalion, is a group of volunteer fighters made up of Russian citizens who oppose the Kremlin.
The volunteer fighters claimed this week they had crossed into Russian territory from Ukraine and captured a village in the Kursk region, while Russian authorities said they had beaten back the attack.
On Wednesday, the pro-Kyiv militias urged civilians to flee the cities of Belgorod and Kursk near the Ukraine border, threatening large-scale attacks on military targets there.