Russia arrests two church figures over alleged Ukrainian plot to kill Putin-linked priest

A view of the towers of the Kremlin throughout sundown in Moscow, Russia, February 23, 2025.
| Picture Credit score: Reuters

Russia’s FSB safety service stated on Friday (February 28, 2025) it had arrested two church figures suspected of plotting to kill a priest near President Vladimir Putin on the directions of Ukrainian intelligence.

There was no fast response from Kyiv to the allegation.

The alleged goal was Tikhon Shevkunov, 66, whom Russian media have described for years as “Putin’s confessor”. He has maintained a public acquaintance with Putin because the late Nineteen Nineties and the Kremlin has stated the 2 males know one another effectively.

In 2023, Shevkunov was appointed to the senior church rank of metropolitan of Crimea, the peninsula which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

In an announcement, the FSB stated it had detained two males it stated had been recruited by Ukrainian navy intelligence on the Telegram messenger service in mid-2024. The FSB stated it seized an improvised explosive machine and two faux Ukrainian passports.

One of many males, Nikita Ivankovich, is a Russian cleric at a church in Moscow. The opposite, Denis Popovich, a Ukrainian born within the western metropolis of Chernivtsi, labored as Shevkunov’s assistant.

The authorities launched movies of each males confessing to the plot. They spoke hesitantly and it was not clear below what circumstances the confessions had been obtained.

Popovich stated he had been recruited to watch Shevkunov’s actions and threatened with the homicide of his kin until he complied. He stated he was then tasked with discovering an confederate with a view to “get rid of” Shevkunov.

He stated the plan was to plant a bomb in a residential constructing of the 14th-century Sretensky Monastery in Moscow, the place Shevkunov was superior till 2018.

Ivankovich, in his confession, stated the lads had been provided with a home-made bomb to hold out the assault. The video confirmed investigators recovering a field and pretend passports from a hiding place in a wooden.

Ukraine has taken accountability for a lot of assassinations in Russia because the begin of the conflict – most just lately for the killing of Igor Kirillov, the pinnacle of Russia’s Nuclear, Organic and Chemical Safety Troops, in December. (Further reporting by Felix Gentle, modifying by Mark Trevelyan)