Ukrainian authorities say they foiled an assassination attempt on a Ukrainian officer who was undergoing rehabilitation after being wounded at the front, arresting a suspected Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) agent within hours of the attack in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia.
Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said its military counterintelligence units and the National Police quickly neutralized the threat in the frontline city.
According to the investigation, Russian operatives lured the soldier to an industrial zone by arranging a fake date with a woman he had met on a dating site. Instead, a balaclava-clad hitman was waiting. The attacker struck from behind, stabbing the victim six times in the neck, chest, abdomen and right leg, then fled.
The officer was hospitalized in intensive care and remains in serious condition, officials said. Within hours, SBU officers tracked down the suspect and arrested him at a relative’s home where he was attempting to hide.
Investigators say the alleged perpetrator is a 25-year-old unemployed local who drew the FSB’s attention while looking for “easy money” in Telegram channels. He had previously carried out a series of “test” arsons before receiving the order to kill the Ukrainian officer; a handler in Russia allegedly provided the target’s address, the SBU said.
To set up the meeting, the FSB allegedly created a fake profile of a woman on a dating site. During his escape, the attacker tried to dispose of the knife, but law enforcement recovered it and seized a smartphone and tablet he allegedly used to communicate with his handlers.
SBU investigators have notified the suspect of suspicion under Part 3 of Article 15 and Part 2 of Article 115 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code - attempted premeditated murder. He is in custody and faces life imprisonment with confiscation of property if convicted.
SBU spokesperson Artem Dekhtiarenko said the swift work of military counterintelligence and the National Police not only prevented a killing but also caught the Russian agent “red-handed.”
Authorities have previously said the agent recruited “like-minded” acquaintances — including Ukrainians exempt from mobilization due to age - into an FSB network, and that he planned contract killings of prominent Ukrainians as well as bombings at a shopping mall and at a Kyiv metro station.
