Woman suspected of planning drone strikes on local airfield detained by FSB in Voronezh

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on Tuesday that it had detained a woman in the southern Russian city of Voronezh for allegedly planning a drone strike on a Russian military airfield outside the city on behalf of the Ukrainian intelligence services.

According to the FSB statement, the unnamed Russian citizen was recruited by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) during a visit she made to the country in 2022. She subsequently travelled to Voronezh on her handler’s orders where she rented a garage to use for the assembly and eventual launching of drones, the FSB alleged, adding that her objective had been to destroy military infrastructure and aircraft, and to harm personnel at the airfield.

Having identified the suspect, the FSB launched an operation to apprehend her that involved both law enforcement officers and bomb disposal experts. The FSB did not specify when the woman was taken into custody, as is typical in FSB press releases.

However, the FSB did say that the woman had managed to collect a total of nine drones from various hiding places, each carrying some 500 grams of explosives, as well as drone control devices.

“Thanks to its immediate response to information received, Russia’s FSB managed to detain an accomplice of the Ukrainian special services in a timely manner to prevent sabotage at the stage of its preparation, as well as to localise the potential consequences of the Kiev regime’s criminal activity against the military base,” the FSB statement said.