RUSSIAN security service officers detained a suspect in an allegedly audacious operation by Ukrainian intelligence to explode a key rail link in Siberia.
Two mammoth explosions hit oil tanker wagons on freight trains blocking a tunnel and secondary route reportedly used to deliver North Korean shells to Vladimir Putin’s troops in Ukraine.
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Other reports said the line was used for Chinese imports into Russia at a time of Western sanctions.
FSB agents were today seen detaining a suspect who “confessed” to carrying out a “terrorist act” on the orders of Ukraine’s SBU secret services agency.
The 52-year-old man – holding a Belarus passport – was held in Russia’s Omsk region, in western Siberia.
The two explosions were carried out just days apart in the Severomuyskiy mountains
Footage indicates severe damage to the rail link.
The FSB security service video showed the unnamed man being marched by an officer in military fatigues into a building for questioning.
He was later shown “confessing”, although his face was not seen.
“A terrorist act plotted by Ukrainian special services and directed at destroying critical transport and energy infrastructure has been exposed,” said the FSB, once headed by Putin.
“He blew up two trains carrying petroleum products along the Taishet-Tynda and Taishet-Neryungri routes.”
The Belarus man was tasked with the explosions by another Belarus citizen living in Lithuania “and operating under the control of the Ukrainian special services”.
Neither the suspect nor his controller were named.
“A friend wrote to me on Telegram [messenger], and asked how often I go to Russia,” said the suspect.
“Or rather, do I go to Russia and when will I go next.
“He offered that I should deliver a parcel – naturally, for a fee.”
The suspect did not reveal how much he was allegedly paid.
“I had known the man for several years, and he seemed to inspire confidence,” said the detainee.
“Then questions arose.
“I started asking what and why…
“He explained that these were magnetic mines to blow up some kind of train and stop traffic on the Baikal-Amur Mainline [BAM].
The suspect then agreed to carry out the daring plot and reached Severobaikalsk where he installed the device.
The first explosion had been in the nine-mile Severomuysky rail tunnel – Russia’s longest – on 29 November.
A 41-wagon goods train – including three tankers filled with aviation fuel – was reportedly blown up.
And the second on a nearby track bypassing the tunnel a day later.
A video was shown of a damaged train but the disruption is seen as bigger than officials have publicly admitted.
A Kyiv source told The Sun that the blasts had “paralysed” Russia’s Baikal-Amur Mainline which runs for 2,700 miles from central Russia to its Sea of Japan east coast.
Read more on the Scottish Sun
The two bombings are the deepest behind enemy lines of Ukrainian sabotage attacks so far.
The Baikal-Amur Mainline is used for munitions from North Korea and China to supply Putin’s invading forces in Ukraine, Kyiv claims.
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