The SBU’s counterintelligence department has detained four groups of Russia’s FSB operatives who were plotting a second assassination attempt targeting Ukrainian media personality Dmytro Gordon, the SBU reported in a Facebook post.

According to the investigators, the Russian special service set a reward of 400 thousand US dollars for the crime.

“The occupiers entrusted the preparation of the famous journalist’s assassination to an agent deep undercover in Kyiv. The agent turned out to be a Russian citizen aged 36, hailing from the North Caucasus, whom the FSB ‘routed’ to Ukraine even before the full-scale invasion as a political asylum seeker from Russia,” the SBU reported.

To cover up, the FSB pushed fabricated criminal charges against the agent and put him on the wanted list in order to make him look like an “opposition figure”.

“After the start of the full-scale war, the person of interest received a task from his curator: to create reconnaissance and combat groups in Kyiv consisting of North Caucasus natives,” the SBU reported.

The attackers purchased several cars, disguised them as taxis and equipped them with hidden video recorders. The drivers of these cars stalked Dmytro Gordon, tracking his daily routine, whereabouts, and the presence of security guards.

“As per the FSB’s plan, the assassin was supposed to attack the target with a firearm and quickly flee the scene, get rid of the weapon, and ‘lay low.’ The resident agent was looking to purchase a motorcycle for this purpose,” the SBU reported.

The special service forestalled the operation: all members of the group and the resident agent were detained while preparting for the assassination attempt.

“While documenting the suspects’ reconnaissance activities, the SBU learned that they had received additional missions to help the Russian troops aim their strikes and assassinate foreigners fighting for Ukraine. One of those was a Russian citizen who is now fighting for our country as part of the RVC,” the department said.

The SBU has notified the detainees of suspicion under Part 1 of Article 258 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (“Acts of terrorism”). They are in custody, facing up to 10 years in prison with confiscation of property.

SBU chief Vasyl Maliuk said during a press briefing that two FSB agent networks were operating in Ukraine, with Dmytro Gordon’s assassination being one of their objectives. One network was coordinated by former MP Vitaliy Hrushevskyi and the other was a criminal gruop from Dagestan, Russia, reports Interfax Ukraine.

“There were two networks operating around Gordon that we can discuss. The first network was run by a former regional MP, now in prison, a native of Poltava. The ex-MP in question is Vitaliy Anatolyevych Hrushevskyi. He carried out visual surveillance, the FSB instructed him, and he also brought in several assistants. Some of them were journalists, by the way, but they were not in full contact with the FSB, even though they carried out some tasks. They later made a deal with the investigators and even gave us detailed demonstrations,” Maliuk said.

According to him, the assassination plan included using a homemade explosive device or orchestrating a rocket-propelled grenade strike “of they had 100% confirmation that Dmytro Gordon was in the building.”

The SBU chief reported that the former MP had orchestrated other acts of sabotage and was on the special services’ radar for involvement in the bomb strike on a railway track in Poltava oblast.

“There was another group working concurrently: a group of thieves from Dagestan employed by the FSB. Russia made up a legend for the group’s leader: that he was a wanted person there, as if he was in trouble with the law enforcement system, with the FSB. He was sent here long before the full-scale war. He carried out the FSB’s missions all the time, did it very professionally, very covertly. In Ukraine, he entered into a relationship with the daughter of a former high-ranking official of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in order to expand his capabilities. Russia gave him money to organize a taxi service as a cover and to surveil targets, all cars being equipped with video recorders,” Maliuk said.

According to him, this group planned to assassinate Gordon with a firearm.

“This group has also been detained, they are testifying. The leader of the group admitted to cooperating with the Russian special services and preparing an assassination attempt on Gordon,” the SBU chief said.

Maliuk added that Gordon has a very large audience, including in Russia and in the temporarily occupied territories, he is sincere and outspoken about his pro-Ukrainian views, and for this the Russian authorities consider him “Ukraine’s main propagandist.”

“In 2023, Putin signed an order with a task to orchestrate acts of terror in Ukraine, including this one and all the ones we talked about today. To create a subversive noise in Ukraine,” he noted.

In September 2024, four agents of Russia’s FSB, coordinated by an ex-deputy of the outlawed “Party of Regions”, were detained in Kyiv while preparing sabotage operations and collecting data on Ukraine’s public figures, including the Ukrainian media personality Dmytro Gordon, for assassination purpose.