A Ukrainian powerlifting champion has been detained by Russian authorities and accused of plotting to assassinate a high-ranking military official.
Yulia Lemeshchenko, 41, was reportedly among four female agents arrested by Russia’s FSB security service, according to Russian media.
The FSB alleges that Lemeshchenko, who held a Russian passport, was deployed by Kyiv to infiltrate enemy lines and target a senior military figure. She appeared in an FSB-released video confessing to being recruited during the war, though it is unclear whether she was coerced into making the statement.
Lemeshchenko was arrested in her apartment in Voronezh in mid-January, but Russian authorities only recently disclosed her detention.
The athlete, who won three gold medals in the 2021 Ukrainian Classic Powerlifting Championship, claimed in the video, “In 2023, I was recruited by the Ukrainian security services. I received training in Kyiv, where I learned to handle firearms, operate drones, evade surveillance, and make explosive devices.” She also revealed that her handler assigned her the alias “Luffy.”
“In 2024, I entered Russia and, under orders from Ukrainian special services, was instructed to carry out an attack on a high-ranking officer in the Russian Defence Ministry.”
Born in the Russian city of Stary Oskol, Lemeshchenko moved to Ukraine in 2014 and settled in Kharkiv. Reports suggest she allegedly agreed to the mission in exchange for Ukrainian citizenship.
The FSB claims that all four detained women were trained in handling weapons, explosives, drone operations, and surveillance tactics. One of them had reportedly been deployed to Rostov-on-Don two years ago for an assassination mission, while another was sent to Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea to spy on high-ranking officials after undergoing a polygraph test in Kyiv.
One of the arrested women stated, “I was instructed to plant an explosive device in his office.”
