Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claims to have uncovered and thwarted a Ukrainian-orchestrated plot to assassinate Metropolitan Tikhon Shevkunov, a senior Orthodox Church figure widely believed to be President Vladimir Putin’s personal confessor.
The FSB announced the arrest of two men allegedly involved in the plan, one of whom, Denis Popovich, served as Shevkunov’s assistant. The other suspect, Nikita Ivankovich, was a cleric at a church in Moscow. According to Russian authorities, both men had been recruited by Ukrainian military intelligence in mid-2024 through the encrypted messaging app Telegram.
The agency said it recovered an improvised explosive device and fake Ukrainian passports from a hidden location. The FSB released video footage of both suspects appearing to confess to their involvement, though the circumstances under which these statements were obtained remain unclear.
In his recorded statement, Popovich claimed he had been blackmailed into cooperating, saying Ukrainian intelligence operatives threatened to kill his relatives unless he helped track Shevkunov’s movements. He also stated that he was instructed to recruit an accomplice for the operation. Ivankovich, in his confession, claimed that the two had been supplied with a home-made bomb to carry out the attack, which was reportedly meant to be planted in a residential building at the 14th-century Sretensky Monastery in Moscow, where Shevkunov once served as superior.
The Kremlin strongly condemned the alleged plot, with spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stating, “It is clear that the Kyiv regime does not shrink from anything. In this case, nothing is sacred. This is once again confirmed.”
Shevkunov, 66, has long been a significant religious figure in Russia and was appointed Metropolitan of Crimea in 2023, overseeing the Orthodox Church in the region annexed by Russia in 2014. While the Kremlin has acknowledged his long-standing acquaintance with Putin, dating back to the late 1990s, the exact nature of their relationship remains a subject of speculation.
The incident marks the latest in a series of assassination attempts and targeted killings linked to the war in Ukraine. Kyiv has previously claimed responsibility for several high-profile operations inside Russia, including the December 2024 assassination of Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection Troops. However, there has been no immediate response from Ukrainian officials regarding the allegations against the two clerics.
