Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on Friday the arrest of two individuals accused of conspiring to assassinate Metropolitan Tikhon Shevkunov, a prominent Russian Orthodox priest closely associated with President Vladimir Putin.
The FSB alleges that Ukrainian military intelligence recruited the suspects via the Telegram messaging app in mid-2024. Authorities reportedly seized an improvised explosive device and counterfeit Ukrainian passports during the arrests.
Metropolitan Shevkunov, 66, often referred to in Russian media as “Putin’s confessor,” was appointed as the metropolitan of Crimea in 2023, following Russia’s annexation of the peninsula in 2014.
The detained individuals include Nikita Ivankovich, a Russian cleric serving in a Moscow church, and Denis Popovich, a Ukrainian native from Chernivtsi who worked as Shevkunov’s assistant. In confessions released by the FSB, Popovich claimed he was coerced into monitoring Shevkunov’s movements under threats to his family and was later instructed to find an accomplice to “eliminate” the metropolitan. Ivankovich admitted to receiving a homemade bomb intended for the attack.
The plan allegedly involved planting the explosive device in a residential building of Moscow’s 14th-century Sretensky Monastery, where Shevkunov served as superior until 2018.
There has been no immediate response from Ukrainian authorities regarding these allegations.
