Russian security services say they have detained a German woman accused of plotting a bomb attack on a law enforcement facility in the country’s south, in a case Moscow links to Ukraine and what it calls foreign-backed terrorism.

The Federal Security Service, or FSB, announced that the woman, born in 1969, was arrested in the city of Pyatigorsk in the North Caucasus. According to the agency, officers found an improvised explosive device in her backpack, allegedly prepared for a remote-controlled blast at a security services site in the Stavropol region.

The FSB claims the device contained an explosive charge equivalent to about 1.5 kilograms of TNT. Officials say the bomb was designed to be detonated at a distance in a way that would have killed the woman herself, suggesting she was intended to die in the attack. The agency says the explosion was averted through electronic jamming before specialists carried out a controlled detonation.

Russian authorities allege the woman was recruited by a man from an unspecified Central Asian country, born in 1997, whom they describe as a supporter of a “radical ideology.” He was reportedly detained near the intended target. Both suspects face terrorism-related charges that could carry life sentences.

Video released by Russian state media appears to show heavily armed officers surrounding a woman dressed in black and lying face down in a parking area. Separate footage shows masked agents escorting a man into a building, followed by images of an explosion said to be the neutralisation of the seized backpack bomb.

Moscow has not publicly presented independent evidence to support its claims that Ukrainian intelligence directed the alleged plot. There has been no immediate response from authorities in Kyiv or Berlin.

Russia has repeatedly accused Ukraine of orchestrating or inspiring attacks on its territory, sometimes alleging cooperation with Islamist extremists. After a mass shooting and fire at a concert hall near Moscow that left scores dead, officials initially suggested a link between the attackers, the Islamic State group and Ukraine, though no proof of Ukrainian involvement has been made public and Kyiv has denied any role.

The latest case adds to a growing list of politically charged detentions involving foreign nationals in Russia, deepening tensions with Western governments already strained by the war in Ukraine.