The reception of the new American ambassador in Moscow was icy. President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday accused Western intelligence agencies of being involved in “terrorist” attacks in Russia. Meanwhile, his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy was on an official visit to Warsaw, during which Poland vowed to ask for additional security guarantees for Ukraine at the next NATO summit.
“There is every reason to believe” that the capacities of third countries and Western intelligence services “are involved in the preparation of acts of sabotage and terrorism” both in Moscow-controlled Ukrainian territories and in Russia, Vladimir Putin said during a speech televised session of his Security Council.
Arrest of a Ukrainian pilot
The Russian president, installed alongside Russia-installed leaders of the four Ukrainian regions it claims for annexation in 2022, accused Kiev of committing “grave crimes against the civilian population living there and sparing no one” in those areas. . Vladimir Putin ordered Russian security forces “to do everything in their power to ensure the safety of the local population”.
A few hours after the head of state’s intervention, the Russian security services (FSB) announced the arrest of a Ukrainian pilot whose small plane crashed in a border area of Ukraine. “The plane crashed near the village of Butovsk in the Bryansk region for unknown reasons. The pilot [un citoyen ukrainien]who tried to flee to Ukrainian territory was detained by a unit of border guards,” they said.
Captured statuette
Vladimir Putin’s allegations also come three days after the death of a famous Russian military blogger in a bomb blast at a cafe in Saint Petersburg (north-west). Maxime Fomin, known for his fierce support for the Russian offensive in Ukraine, died after accepting a booby-trapped statuette from a young Russian woman, Daria Trepova, who was arrested and remanded in custody on Tuesday.
Moscow has accused Kyiv and “agents” of detained opponent Alexei Navalny of involvement in the assassination. For their part, Ukrainian officials considered it an internal reckoning in the circles supporting the offensive in Russia. Ukraine has previously been accused of several other targeted assassinations both in the occupied territories and in Russia itself, as well as acts of sabotage.
“Geopolitical Confrontation”
Russian diplomacy spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Wednesday the assassination of Maxime Fomin will be “one of the topics for discussion” at the UN Security Council, of which Russia took over the rotating chairmanship on Saturday. A few hours earlier, Vladimir Putin flogged the US at a ceremony to hand over credentials to the Kremlin in the presence of the US ambassador and the EU envoy.
He deplored a “deep crisis” in Moscow-Washington relations and questioned “US support” for the 2014 Ukrainian revolution that “ultimately led to the current Ukraine crisis.” He then accused the European Union of being “at the origin of a geopolitical confrontation with Russia” and noted that relations with the EU “have deteriorated sharply in recent years”.