Ukrainian chemical attack against staff of Russian defense plant thwarted

© The FSB

The suspect planned to pour toxic substances into the air ducts of vehicles driven by employees, the agency has said.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has said it has foiled a Ukrainian terrorist plot targeting the staff of a Russian defense industry enterprise in the city of Yaroslavl.

The suspect is a Russian citizen who was working for Kiev, and who planned to poison workers of the facility with toxic substances, according to a statement from the agency on Tuesday.

The man was detained after receiving two containers with “dangerous chemicals” from a cache prepared by the Ukrainian special services, the FSB said. The substances in question can cause potentially fatal respiratory burns, it added.

The suspect planned to pour the chemicals into the air ducts of vehicles driven by employees of the defense enterprise, the agency said.

“The terrorist’s activities were coordinated from the territory of Ukraine via foreign internet messaging apps,” the FSB stressed.

Yaroslavl is located on the Volga River, around 250km (160 miles) northeast of Moscow. The city, which has a population of over 570,000, is the capital of the Yaroslavl Region.

It is not the first time that Kiev’s spy services have tried to use toxic chemicals to carry out attacks inside Russia since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, the FSB stated.

Previously, a Ukrainian agent was detained for allegedly trying to poison food and drinks at a gathering of graduates from a military pilot school in the southern city of Armavir, the agency said.

Four people who were planning to contaminate food products prepared by volunteers for Russian frontline troops were also arrested in St. Petersburg, the FSB added.

Last February, a terrorist attack using the 3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate military agent (which NATO calls BZ) was reportedly thwarted in Russia’s Zaporozhye Region. US-designed chemicals were seized from the suspects, according to the agency.