This is not the first time Ukrainian intelligence is trying to organize sabotage and terrorist activities on the territory of Russia. This time the FSB detained two agents of the Security Service of Ukraine. Zinovy ​​Koval and his son Igor, according to the official report, arrived in Russia to collect information, as well as to take photographs and videos of strategically important objects. According to Koval Jr., they were given the task "to photograph road bridges, railway bridges, and a thermal power plant in Russian cities."

The detainees admitted that they were recruited by the current employee of the SBU department in the Ternopil region, Colonel Vasyl Kovalik.

For the work done, the saboteurs were to receive $ 10 thousand (more than 738 thousand rubles).

It is reported that short-barreled and automatic weapons, as well as personal protective equipment were found in their car.

Why could the SBU need pictures of bridges and a thermal power plant?

In search of an answer to this question, we will need a third detainee.

It was Oleksandr Tsilyk, an agent of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine.

“He confessed that he was recruited and acted on the instructions of Lieutenant Colonel Kirilovets Maksim Leonidovich, born in 1988, the head of the sector - an employee of the operational group of the operational department of the special reserve of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine,” the FSB explained.

Tsilyk was not sent to Russia to collect information. He was given a more difficult task. He was supposed to detonate two homemade bombs with a total mass of 1.5 kg in TNT equivalent. It is clear that it was not necessary to blow them up in an open field - it was planned to disable a certain infrastructure object. To determine which one, it is necessary to have photographic and video materials by which it is possible to determine where to lay the explosives in order to cause the greatest damage. Kovalei's work is a stage in the preparation of a sabotage and terrorist act.

This is not a spontaneous activity or a whim of individual SBU officers. Back in April, the Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev told how the training of saboteurs was carried out. According to him, specialized centers have been deployed on the Ukrainian territory "at the suggestion of Western sponsors". Traditionally, the Ukrainian special services pay special attention to Crimea. In 2016, attempts were made to break through to the peninsula. In August, a sabotage group tried to cross the Russian-Ukrainian border to get to the peninsula. During the arrest, they opened fire, and one FSB officer was killed. A large number of weapons were later found at the scene of the collision, including those in service with special units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Later, two more attempts were made to break through, as a result of which the enemy side lost two people killed, three were taken prisoner.

The object of sabotage, as the detainees said, were supposed to be military bases: the 39th helicopter regiment in Dzhankoy and anti-aircraft units with new weapons.

In April, the FSB identified a party of supporters of the radical Ukrainian youth organization MKU. It is noted that these were 16 people in different cities of the country. “In Irkutsk, Krasnodar, Saratov, Tambov, Tyumen, Chita, Anapa, Krasnodar Territory, Pushchino, Moscow Region, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Yaroslavl Region, 16 supporters of the Ukrainian youth radical community“ M.K.U. " extremism, as well as the preparation of the bombing of administrative buildings of the authorities and armed attacks on citizens, "- reported the Center for Public Relations of the FSB. The detainees had their own curator in Ukraine. According to Patrushev, in 2020, six terrorist attacks and ten terrorist crimes were prevented in Crimea.

Russian law enforcement agencies have extensive experience in combating terrorist threats.

Chechen terrorists 20 years ago carried out on the territory of Russia a number of large-scale terrorist attacks with a large number of human casualties: explosions in the markets of the North Caucasus, shooting of military columns, blowing up houses, explosions in the metro and airports, at public events, the seizure of a school in Beslan, Dubrovka.

I am sure that the Ukrainians will not be able to expand so widely.

In fact, since 2016, they have not been able to carry out a single successful terrorist attack.

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.