SSU, police dismantle Russian agent network planning terror attacks in Kyiv and Zhytomyr
The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) and the National Police of Ukraine have dismantled an agent network run by Russia’s FSB that was planning a series of new terrorist attacks in Kyiv and Zhytomyr.
According to Ukrinform, the SSU press center reported this.
As part of preemptive actions, law enforcement officers detained two Russian female agents who were making homemade bombs intended for attacks in crowded areas of Kyiv and Zhytomyr.
Investigators established that preparations for the explosions were carried out by a 24-year-old contract servicemember of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and her 25-year-old friend. Both were members of an FSB agent network.
The SSU recalled that in December 2025, law enforcement officers detained three other members of the same network after they had carried out a terrorist attack in Kyiv’s Darnytskyi district.
The suspects were recruited by Russian handlers through a Telegram channel advertising “easy money.”
After being recruited, the agents received funds from the FSB to rent an apartment in Zhytomyr, where they set up a clandestine laboratory to manufacture improvised explosive devices (IEDs) following instructions from the Russian security service.
The women purchased components for the explosives at local shops and markets, visiting them separately and regularly changing their clothes to avoid detection.
Once the IEDs were assembled, the agents were to receive geolocations from the FSB indicating where the planned attacks were to be carried out and where they were supposed to plant the bombs.
SSU officers exposed the suspects in advance, documented their criminal activities, and detained them while they were in the process of making the first explosive device.
During searches, investigators found bomb components as well as smartphones containing evidence of their cooperation with the enemy.
The SSU has formally notified the suspects of charges under Part 1 of Article 14 and Part 2 of Article 258 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (preparation of a terrorist act committed by a group of persons acting in prior conspiracy).
The suspects are currently in custody. They face up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.
As previously reported by Ukrinform, Kyiv police and the SSU detained three individuals in December 2025 who were suspected of organizing a terrorist attack in the Darnytskyi district of the capital.
Photo: SSU