Explosive Found in Sacred Icon in Alleged Plot against Russian FSB in Crimea

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it prevented a bombing attempt in Crimea that involved an Orthodox icon rigged with explosives, allegedly planned by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU).

According to the FSB’s Public Relations Center, a 54-year-old woman from the Volgograd region was detained after being “fraudulently drawn into terrorist activities by Ukrainian special services using the Telegram messenger.”

Investigators said the woman was first contacted in May by an SBU representative posing as an FSB investigator. She was told that a Ukrainian citizen had taken out a fraudulent loan in her name and funneled the money to the Ukrainian military. To avoid criminal charges, she reportedly borrowed more than three million rubles using her apartment as collateral and transferred the funds to scammers.

She was then instructed to travel to Crimea, where she collected an Orthodox icon from a courier. Inside the religious artifact, FSB experts discovered a homemade explosive device with the power of one kilogram of TNT equivalent. The device, authorities said, was designed to detonate upon receiving a coded signal.

The woman carried the icon to the checkpoint of the regional FSB building, where she was stopped and arrested. The FSB said the SBU’s plan was for the explosion to kill officers inside the building as well as the carrier herself, since she had been told to send the detonation code personally.

A criminal case has been opened under charges of “attempt to commit a terrorist act” and “illegal storage of explosive devices.” A court ordered the suspect to be held in custody for two months.