Kiev's intelligence agencies assist IS militants in plotting terror attacks in Russia

Ukrainian intelligence agencies have been actively assisting members of the Islamic State terror group (outlawed in Russia) in planning terrorist attacks on Russian soil and the target killings of Donbass leaders, the press service of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) told TASS.

"According to information provided by the detained person [a IS militant detained for being involved in planning the murder of one of the DPR leaders - TASS], in Ukraine, the country’s intelligence agencies have been actively assisting members of the Islamic State international terror group by ensuring their safety, providing them with funds, weapons and explosives for carrying out terrorist attacks in Russia," the FSB press service said.

"Ukrainian intelligence agencies have also been recruiting Islamic State members to eliminate militia leaders in the self-proclaimed Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics," the FSB added.

The FSB press service noted that Russian citizen Medzhid Magomedov, born in 1988, had been detained in the country’s western Smolensk region on September 9. He is believed to be a member of the Islamic State terror group whom the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) and the Pravy Sektor (or Right Sector) nationalist organization had instructed to plan the murder of one of the DPR leaders.

According to the FSB, in early 2018, Magomedov arrived in Ukraine to discuss the supply of resources to clandestine groups active in the North Caucasus with IS envoys. They introduced him to SBU officers and Pravy Sektor members. "Ukrainian intelligence agents later instructed Magomedov to kill the commander of one of the DPR Armed Forces’ units residing in the Smolensk region," the FSB said.

Magomedov’s sponsors provided him with the intended victim’s address and the means to carry out the crime, but was detained upon his arrival in the Smolensk region "so that the crime can be prevented." "An explosive device that has approximately as much power as 1.5 kilograms of TNT was seized from him, as well as a gun with a silencer and ammunition," the FSB said.

A criminal case has been launched against the detained person, an investigation is underway.

The SBU dismissed as fake the FSB’s report about its cooperation with the Islamic State group. "That’s another fake by Russia’s FSB, it’s just laughable to comment about this," an SBU representative told the UNN news agency on Monday.