Russian security officials claimed they thwarted a Ukrainian plot to assassinate a senior Kremlin official in Russia because the target had visited a cemetery.
The claim by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) comes as Kiev residents experience another heavy Russian air attack that left at least four people dead, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukraine’s special services had planned to target an unnamed official, described as “one of the highest-ranking officials of the Russian state,” as he visited the graves of relatives in a cemetery on the outskirts of Moscow, Russia’s Federal Security Service said in a statement Friday.
In its statement, the FSB also claimed that Ukraine was planning similar attacks inside Russia.
CNN could not independently verify Russia’s claims. A Ukrainian security official denied the report, telling CNN: “They are pumping out fake news and statements non-stop. Our position is not to comment on their nonsense.”
Ukraine has claimed responsibility for past assassinations of Russian officials, including a commander killed in Siberia last month.
Ukraine and Russia began airstrikes on each other’s territory overnight on Friday, according to international authorities.
In Kiev, local authorities said at least four people were killed and 27 injured in the attack. According to city military authorities, two children and a pregnant woman were among the injured.
It added that more than 15 buildings were damaged in the capital, including residences and medical facilities.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone strike targeted the Russian port city of Novorossiysk, injuring at least four people and damaging an oil depot, the governor of the Krasnodar region said.
Assassinations have become a feature of the war between Russia and Ukraine. According to the monitoring group Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), targeted killings within Russia and in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine have increased sharply since 2022.
According to ACLED’s report, the number of assassination attempts in Russia in the first three quarters of 2025 exceeded the annual total of the previous three years.
Ukraine announced last month that it had used a car bomb to assassinate Russian officer Veniamin Mazherin. Mazherin, deputy commander of the Russian military police unit in Kemerovo, southwestern Siberia, allegedly helped command special forces involved in “war crimes and genocide against the Ukrainian people,” according to Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Service.
In April, Russian General Yaroslav Moskalik was killed in a car explosion outside Moscow. Russian authorities said they had indicted a “member of Ukrainian special services” on terrorism charges, but Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the incident.
A few months earlier, a top Russian commander accused of using chemical weapons in Ukraine was killed by a remotely detonated bomb planted on an electric scooter outside his Moscow apartment. A person familiar with the operation told CNN at the time that Ukrainian security services were involved in the assassination.
In November 2023, Ukraine announced that it was involved in the assassination of Mikhail Filiponenko, a member of the Kremlin-established parliament in the occupied eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk. Filiponenko was also killed by a car bomb.
Assassinations have also occurred in Ukraine. In July, a Ukrainian security official was gunned down in broad daylight in Kiev, and authorities blamed Russian security services for the killing.
