A Moscow court on Friday issued a warrant for the arrest of the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, accusing the spy chief of organizing "terrorist attacks" inside Russia, state-owned news agency RIA reported.
RIA cited the court as saying that Budanov was accused of offenses related to terrorism and arms smuggling. The move against him was announced "in absentia," in an apparent acknowledgement that Budanov cannot be immediately detained.
Russia experiences hits on infrastructure
Since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine last year, a number of explosions have hit Russian infrastructure, arms dumps and military facilities. Russia has blamed Ukraine for many of the strikes, while Kyiv has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) previously named Budanov as the organizer of an explosion that damaged the bridge linking Russia to the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in October. Russia has also blamed Ukrainian spies for bombings that killed the daughter of a nationalist writer near Moscow, and a pro-war blogger in St Petersburg.
