Russia Claims to Have Thwarted Ukrainian Plot Targeting Senior Kremlin Official

According to Rokna, citing CNN, 

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has announced that it foiled an alleged Ukrainian plan to assassinate a high-ranking Kremlin official while he was visiting a cemetery in Russia. The claim comes amid another night of intense Russian airstrikes on Kyiv, which Ukrainian authorities say killed at least four people.

According to a Friday statement by the FSB, Ukrainian special services were reportedly planning to target the unnamed official, described as “one of the highest-ranking officials of the Russian state,” during a visit to his relatives’ graves outside Moscow. The FSB also warned that Ukraine is reportedly preparing similar attacks on Russian soil.

CNN has not independently verified Russia’s claims. Ukraine’s Security Service rejected the allegations, telling CNN, “They are constantly producing fake news and statements. We do not comment on their nonsense.” Ukraine has previously taken responsibility for assassinating Russian officials, including a commander killed last month in Siberia.

Both Russia and Ukraine carried out aerial attacks on each other’s territories overnight into Friday, according to authorities from both countries. In Kyiv, officials reported at least four fatalities and 27 injuries, including two children and a pregnant woman. More than 15 buildings, including residential and medical facilities, were damaged in the attacks.

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone strike targeted the Russian port city of Novorossiysk, injuring at least four people and damaging an oil depot, according to the governor of Krasnodar Krai.

Targeted assassinations have become a recurring feature of the war between Russia and Ukraine. Killings inside Russia and in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine have surged since 2022, according to monitoring group ACLED. The organization reported that assassination attempts within Russia during the first three quarters of 2025 exceeded the total for each of the previous three years.

Last month, Ukraine claimed responsibility for killing Russian officer Veniamin Mazzherin using a car bomb. Mazzherin, deputy commander of a Russian military police unit in Kemerovo, southwest Siberia, was reportedly involved in a special unit accused of “war crimes and genocide against the Ukrainian people,” according to Ukrainian Defense Intelligence.

In April, Russian General Yaroslav Moskalik was killed in a car explosion outside Moscow. Russian authorities charged a “Ukrainian special services agent” with terrorism, though Ukraine did not claim responsibility. Months earlier, a senior Russian general accused of using chemical weapons in Ukraine was killed by a remotely detonated bomb planted in an electric scooter near his Moscow apartment. Sources at the time told CNN that Ukraine’s security services were behind the attack.

In November 2023, Ukraine claimed responsibility for the assassination of Mikhail Filiponenko, a Kremlin-appointed lawmaker in occupied eastern Luhansk, who was also killed with a car bomb. Ukraine has itself suffered assassinations, including a July attack in Kyiv where a Ukrainian security officer was shot in broad daylight, an act attributed to Russian security forces.