Human bomb: Russia says it foiled a terrorist attack targeting Belgorod

Russia’s Federal Security Service announced that it had thwarted a planned terrorist bombing in the Belgorod region in the country’s southwest.

In a statement, the agency said that Ukrainian intelligence services had planned to carry out the attack by recruiting a “deceived” female citizen, who later informed Russian authorities about the plot.

The statement noted that the woman voluntarily contacted regional security services after discovering that she had “fallen into an enemy trap,” according to the agency’s wording.

The Federal Security Service explained that the woman had been the victim of fraud after unknown individuals convinced her to transfer a large sum of money to what they described as a “secure account.”

It added that individuals later posing as Russian security officers contacted her and persuaded her to take part in a “security operation” aimed at capturing criminals in exchange for recovering her money.

According to the statement, the plan was for the woman to retrieve an explosive device from a secret cache and place it in a crowded location before it would be detonated remotely.

Russian security authorities accused Ukrainian intelligence of using what they described as “human bombs,” claiming that Kyiv had carried out three attacks during 2025 and 2026 in Moscow, Stavropol, and Luhansk using individuals who had been recruited and misled into believing they were carrying out missions on behalf of Russian security services.