Russia Arrests Moldovan Man for Wounding Military Officer in Alleged Ukraine-Linked Plot
Russia detains a Moldovan citizen accused of shooting a senior military officer in the Saratov region, allegedly on orders from Ukraine.
Russian security services said Tuesday they have arrested a 21-year-old Moldovan national in connection with the shooting of a senior military officer last week, the latest in a string of attacks targeting individuals linked to Moscow's war in Ukraine.
The Federal Security Service (FSB) alleged the man was recruited by Ukrainian intelligence in 2025 and entered Russia in June. He was detained in the southern Astrakhan region while reportedly trying to leave the country and return to Moldova. He faces charges of attempted murder and illegal arms trafficking, the FSB said.
The officer, whose name has not been released, was shot at least six times on September 3 in the settlement of Probuzhdenie on the outskirts of Engels, a city in the Saratov region, according to Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for Russia's Investigative Committee. The victim survived and remains hospitalized.
The area hosts a major Russian air base that houses strategic bombers used in strikes against Ukraine. Petrenko said the suspect was allegedly promised $70,000 for carrying out the attack.
Neither Ukrainian nor Moldovan officials immediately commented. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared to reference the shooting on the day it occurred, saying that "wherever Russian criminals hide, they will be found," and citing confirmation in the Saratov region.
The incident follows a series of bombings inside Russia targeting military personnel and defense industry figures. In late August, a car bomb on the outskirts of St. Petersburg killed a serviceman and wounded his wife. Weeks earlier, a factory director supplying drones to the Russian military was seriously injured and his driver killed in a car explosion near Yekaterinburg.
Moscow has blamed Kyiv for some of these attacks, though in several cases no immediate attribution was given. Ukraine's SBU security service previously claimed responsibility for the 2024 killing of Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, who headed Russia's nuclear, biological, and chemical protection forces, in a Moscow bombing.
Earlier this year, President Vladimir Putin ordered the FSB and other agencies to tighten security around military and government officials.