08:48 11-08-2025

FSB: Ukraine Used Elderly Russians in Suicide Bomb Plots

Zеlеnskiу / Оfficiаl / Telegram

FSB reports Ukrainian operatives posed as Russian officials to coerce elderly women into delivering disguised bombs to soldiers, turning them into “human bombs.”

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has reported that Ukrainian intelligence operatives, posing as Russian law enforcement officers, deceived and pressured five elderly Russian women into participating in plots to kill Russian servicemen using bombs disguised as household items.

According to the FSB, Ukrainian agencies have been exploiting Russian pensioners as suicide operatives to carry out terrorist attacks, eliminating them afterward to avoid paying promised rewards and to remove unwanted witnesses.

The security service stated that the women were drawn into these activities through fraudulent schemes and psychological manipulation. Contact was established via calls on Telegram and WhatsApp*, during which their bank savings and proceeds from the forced sale of their homes were stolen.

The FSB explained that the operatives introduced themselves over the phone as representatives of various Russian law enforcement and government bodies — including the FSB, Interior Ministry, Investigative Committee, Prosecutor General’s Office, and military prosecutors — using official terminology and mixed persuasion tactics.

Under psychological pressure and with promises of recovering their stolen funds, the women were allegedly tasked with monitoring residential buildings and military vehicle parking areas, storing improvised explosive devices (IEDs) taken from hidden caches prepared by Ukrainian operatives, and carrying out attacks directly targeting Russian soldiers.

The plan, as described by the FSB, was for the pensioners to personally hand over the disguised IEDs to servicemen. When detonated, the devices would kill both the intended targets and the pensioners themselves, effectively turning them into «human bombs.»

*Owned by Meta, designated as extremist and banned in Russia.