This was the latest in a series of attacks against individuals and figures associated with the war in Ukraine.
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The Federal Security Service (FSB) stated that a 21-year-old Moldovan citizen was detained for allegedly “participating in an assassination attempt on a high-ranking officer of the Russian Ministry of Defense” on the orders of Ukrainian intelligence services. According to the FSB, he has been charged with attempted murder and illegal arms trafficking.
The officer was shot at least six times on September 3 in the settlement of Probuždenije near the city of Engels in the Saratov region, said Svetlana Petrenko, a representative of the Russian Investigative Committee, which is also investigating the case.
There is a large air force base in this region, where Russian strategic bombers are deployed and from which attacks against Ukraine are carried out.
The victim, whose identity has not been disclosed by Russian officials, survived the shooting and is still being treated in hospital.
According to the FSB, the suspect was recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services in 2025 and arrived in Russia in June. He was detained in the southern Astrakhan region while trying to leave the country and return to Moldova, the agency said.
S. Petrenko said he was allegedly offered $70,000 (60,200 euros) for carrying out the attack.
Ukrainian and Moldovan officials have so far made no comments. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned the attack on the day it occurred, saying: “Wherever Russian criminals hide, they will be found, and today is another confirmation of that – a confirmation in the Saratov region.”
Last week’s attack came after a series of bombings in Russia targeting individuals associated with the large-scale invasion of Ukraine that began in 2022. Moscow has blamed Kyiv for some of the explosions.
At the end of August, a soldier was killed and his wife injured when a bomb placed in a car exploded on the outskirts of St. Petersburg. Three weeks earlier, the director of a factory supplying drones to the Russian military was seriously injured and his driver killed when their car exploded near Yekaterinburg, 1,400 km east of Moscow.
In those cases, officials did not specify who they believed carried out the attacks.
Earlier this year, President Vladimir Putin ordered the FSB and other agencies to tighten security for military and government officials.
Kyiv has claimed responsibility for some attacks on Russian territory. The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) reported in 2024 that it organized the assassination of Lieutenant General Igor Kirilov, who led the Russian military’s nuclear, biological, and chemical defense forces.
I. Kirilov was killed by a bomb hidden in a scooter near his apartment building in Moscow, a day after the Ukrainian Security Service filed criminal charges against him.
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