A 400-kilometer pipeline capable of transporting 7.4 million tons of fuel annually to Russian forces is out of operation after HUR operatives executed a coordinated strike on all three lines in the Moscow Oblast.
Maria Tril
November 1, 2025
Euromaidan Press
The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence carried out a special operation on 31 October that disabled the “Koltsevoy” oil pipeline in the Ramensky district of the Moscow Oblast, the HUR reported. All three lines that transported gasoline, diesel, and aviation fuel exploded simultaneously during the operation. The facility is currently not operational, according to intelligence data.
The pipeline extends 400 kilometers and received fuel from refineries in Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod, and Moscow. The infrastructure had the capacity to pump up to 3 million tons of aviation fuel, 2.8 million tons of diesel fuel, and up to 1.6 million tons of gasoline annually. “This operation dealt a serious blow to the military capabilities of the aggressor state,” the HUR emphasized, adding that it also impacted the Russian economy.
Andrei has been working to prevent Russian acts of sabotage by infiltrating Russia’s FSB. Russia’s feared security services sent Andrei his next task: build a bomb to kill dozens of government employees at an administrative building in southern Ukraine.
He carefully built the explosive device using chemicals he’d bought from a nearby market and left it at a secret location before sending co-ordinates to his FSB contact. A Russian agent discreetly collected the package and placed the bomb at the doorstep of the building, unbeknown to the staff inside.
But what the operative and his bosses didn’t know was that Andrei was a double agent working for Ukraine’s security services – and the bomb was filled with flour.
The agent was surrounded by Ukraine’s SBU and caught red-handed before being hauled away and interrogated. Andrei is one of many people employed by Russia’s FSB after scrolling through job adverts offering sabotage work on social media. The security service is paying as much as $5,000 (£3,800) for arson attacks against targets such as an SBU building. Andrei’s job is to play Russia at its own game to thwart attacks and gain intelligence.
Sitting in his car, which is riddled with shrapnel holes, in southern Ukraine as Russian drones fly past, Andrei flicks through such job offers on his phone. “If you are brave and energetic, we have a job for you. You will work a few hours a day,” offers one post, displaying a Ukrainian flag, a flame and a dollar sign next to it.
Another vacancy involves drawing Nazi symbols and the logo of Ukrainian nationalists on city walls. Photographs of the graffiti must be posted on a Ukrainian nationalist website and reported to the Russian intelligence, which created the website itself. “They used to pay $3 per piece, but now the price has gone up,” Andrei says, explaining that it’s part of Russia’s tactic to increase acts of sabotage in Ukraine.
Alongside the graffiti and sabotage, Moscow is trying to create the appearance of a resistance movement by bribing city residents greedy for Russian money. They are also using drones to drop leaflets in an effort to brainwash doubtful Ukrainians. As a double agent, Andrei has been working to prevent such interference by taking up offers of sabotage work only to lure in collaborators and put them in prison.
The former businessman and millionaire lost everything twice. First, when Russia annexed Crimea and expropriated his hotel in 2014. And again, when his company’s building materials were looted after the Russian army entered his city in early 2022.
This is probably one of the reasons that made him willing to put his life on the line to play the much-feared FSB at its own game.
Andrei had been communicating with the SBU for a long time. At some point, a problem arose in the city: agents hired by Russia’s FSB began attempting to blow up administrative buildings and they needed to be countered.
Together with the Ukrainian security services, Andrei decided to set traps and, if possible, arrest the perpetrators. He found that FSB agents offering the most basic jobs on social media were the first step towards more complex tasks, such as burning railway electrical cabinets. He managed to skip this step. Like most residents of southern Ukraine, Andrei has the gift of persuasion. He convinced the Russians, who had come to trust him, that arson was too small a scale for him – “a task for urban teenagers” – and moved on directly to the next level. His last operation was the most dangerous: he was ordered to build an actual bomb.
Andrei received instructions from the FSB to buy various components for making an explosive mixture, as well as bearing balls to increase the destructive effect. Under the supervision of a Russian special services officer online, he made the explosive device at home. He then constructed another one that looked exactly the same and filled it with flour without them knowing.
Andrei shows a picture of the bomb he was instructed to make by Russia’s FSB. The FSB operatives he worked with are generally pretty competent, Andrei says, but even they have a somewhat distorted picture of the situation in Ukraine.
They might suggest drawing Nazi symbols next to a river, where there are practically no people and from where you probably won’t return because of the abundance of Russian drones, but in that case, they would lose their agent.
They may send one to the market to buy components for explosives. “Out of interest, I found a seller and asked if he had this chemical. And I immediately received a counter question: if I
needed it to make a bomb,” says Andrei. “Sometimes I had the feeling that FSB officers form their impressions of the realities of our lives here not based on in-depth research and intelligence data, but as if they had watched a low budget action film or the news that covers Ukraine on Russian television,” he adds.
The most difficult part was to convince the FSB officer that Andrei “was not ready to get blood on his hands” – the bomb was intended to kill several dozen employees – and to persuade the FSB to find someone else for the job without arousing suspicion or losing the trust of his “employer.”
Through discussions that lasted more than a week and emphasised his great admiration for Russia, he managed to do it. While making the bomb, Andrei faced another risk: he could be stopped at any time and the Ukrainian police could go through his phone. “After one call to an SBU officer, they would have come and sorted everything out,” explains Andrei. “The problem was something else – a possible traitor serving at the checkpoint who could stop me. He could recognise me, tell the Russians about me and I would never be able to participate again. I would be like a spent cartridge.” Luckily for Andrei, this has never happened.
Andrei agreed with the Russians to hide the bomb – his fake one – in a specific location, handing them the explosive’s co-ordinates. They, in turn, sent their trustee to retrieve it. From that moment on, the latter was under the constant surveillance of Ukraine’s SBU.
The bag with the homemade explosive device was supposed to be detonated at the entrance to the city’s administrative building. The Russian agent carried it to the very doorstep of the office, where he was caught, after having already been under supervision. “You get great moral satisfaction when people could have died, but you distracted the attention of that rotten Russian office and used their resources,” Andrei says.
According to the investigation, the perpetrator was an unemployed resident of Ternopil, who came to the attention of the FSB searching for quick earnings through Telegram channels. After completing test tasks in Ternopil, where he set fire to Ukrainian Railway facilities, the agent was sent to prepare for a terrorist attack.
Currently, investigators from the SBU have informed the detainee that he is suspected of several offences under the Criminal Code of Ukraine: sabotage committed under martial law and attempted terrorist act.
The perpetrator is being held in custody without the right to bail, and he faces life imprisonment with confiscation of property. “At first, my friends who had left Ukraine asked me who had ordered me to start this activity,”
Andrei explains. “I could never understand that question. I am doing this of my own free will because I fear for my family and my life, since the enemy has invaded our land.” Not everyone feels the same way. In February, a wave of explosions rocked administrative buildings across the country. Poverty, sympathy for the Russian invaders and a degree of recklessness are driving some Ukrainians to commit these acts.
Maria Tril is a journalist for Euromaidan Press, covering the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia. With a focus on military developments, foreign policy, and the impact of the conflict on Ukraine and its neighboring countries, Maria provides insightful analysis and reports on the latest news from the region.