Cigarettes with a "surprise": in Odesa, Russian special services were preparing a terrorist attack using a drone

Security Service of Ukraine together with the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (GUR) and with the assistance of the commander of the Ukrainian Naval Forces prevented a new attempt by Russian special services to organize a terrorist attack in Odesa.

This was reported by the press services of the SBU and the GUR.

According to the special services, as a result of preemptive actions four smugglers were detained who, according to the investigation, acted on the orders of the FSB. They were to deliver means of attack to the port city, among which was an attack UAV with fiber‑optic control and explosives.

The attackers hid the weapons among a large shipment of tobacco products that they were illegally transporting across the waters of the Black Sea from temporarily occupied Abkhazia.

The smugglers’ route ran towards neutral waters near Snake Island. There the cargo was transshipped from the main vessel to small boats in order to covertly deliver it to the coast of Odesa.

The SBU noted that officers of the special service documented the suspects’ actions step by step. They detained the four perpetrators “red‑handed” when they delivered excise goods together with combat weapons to the area of the Odesa port.

According to the investigation materials, the organizer of the smuggling channel is an Odesa businessman who is outside Ukraine and runs illegal business in temporarily occupied Abkhazia.

The investigation believes that in exchange for a “permission” to conduct smuggling in the Caucasus he agreed to cooperate with the FSB. At the request of the Russian special services the businessman was to organize delivery of an attack drone to Odesa.

According to law enforcement, he involved three associates from Odesa and a local border guard in the illegal scheme. The latter was to ensure unhindered passage of vessels to the coast of the regional center.

In addition, on the return trip the perpetrators planned to pick up the organizer’s brother from Odesa and evacuate him from Ukraine by sea.

The detainees have been notified of suspicion under Part 2 of Article 332 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — illegal transfer of persons across the state border of Ukraine.

The issue of additionally qualifying their actions for smuggling weapons and excisable goods is also being considered, as well as notifying other participants in the illegal scheme of suspicion.

An in‑absentia notification of suspicion is being prepared for the organizer of the scheme. The perpetrators face up to 12 years’ imprisonment with confiscation of property.

The special operation was carried out under the procedural guidance of the Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office.

Previously, we wrote:

• “Easy earnings” ended in detention: a young man was leaking to the enemy information on the effects of strikes on Kyiv
• They wanted a “gift” for May 9: SBU foiled an assassination attempt on a senior officer of the Naval Forces in Odesa
• The bicycle didn’t save him: the “tourist” killer failed a special assignment from Russian handlers
• The smoke that chokes the state: how illegal tobacco is eating Ukraine from the inside
• SBU detained an FSB agent who was directing strikes on Mykolaiv