The following story is the stuff of game and movie spies and secret agents, but the operation became possible in real life.
Explosives planted in a mobile phone detonated while in the hands of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) agent Yuriy Afanasievsky inside his apartment in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian region of Luhansk. According to multiple reports, the explosives were planted by a Ukrainian sabotage group, which Russian sources linked to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
The 64-year-old major general and his son, who was also caught up in the attack, were taken to hospital in a critical condition. Afanasievsky's wife was also hurt in the incident.
A woman was arrested and has "already confessed" to Russian authorities she allegedly handed the rigged phone over to the FSB officer.
The incident happened days after another Russian general, Alexei Chernykh, was killed by a drone while mowing his lawn in the Russian border region of Belgorod on his day off.
Afanasievsky and Chernykh are two of a long list of generals allegedly killed by Ukrainian retaliatory attacks.
Who is Yuriy Afanasievsky?
According to an SBU insider who told the Kyiv Post on the condition of anonymity, Afanasievsky was the head of customs in the Russian-occupied area of Luhansk back in 2014 when Vladimir Putin first invaded Ukraine.
He was known for both being the main "financier" of the chairman of the so-called Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) Leonid Pasichnyk and for using "laundered" money to fund paramilitary groups fighting against Ukraine.
He was sanctioned by Britain, the EU, Canada, Switzerland, and Japan after it was discovered he was shown to have financial interests in the British Virgin Islands.
The source added his organization hoped the attack would be fully successful in killing Afanasievsky.
