The Bucharest Court of Appeal ordered on Tuesday the 30-day pre-trial arrest of a Russian citizen accused of attempted acts of diversion, a form of hybrid sabotage targeting military objectives.

The Russian national had been detained earlier in the day by the Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) and brought before the court with a request for pre-trial arrest.

'From the evidence presented in the case, it resulted that, between February - July 2026, in anticipation of perpetrating diversion/sabotage acts of a hybrid nature, under the direct coordination of a person with whom he maintained contact through encrypted online messaging services, the suspect identified, monitored and collected military-related information. He also produced and transmitted photographs regarding Romanian/allied armed forces equipment and the movement of personnel and combat equipment at several Romanian and multinational military objectives (bases) located in the counties of Cluj, Constanta, Calarasi, Ilfov and the municipality of Bucharest, acts which, by their nature, endangered national security,' DIICOT said.

The Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) announced that, in cooperation with DIICOT, the Interior Ministry's Organised Crime Combat Directorate, the Defence Ministry's Defence Intelligence Directorate General and external partner services, it prevented a sabotage action on Romanian soil involving a Russian citizen residing in the country.

According to SRI, beginning in February 2026, the Russian citizen had been under SRI monitoring as part of a broad investigation into attempted diversion acts, which included photo-video documentation of national and NATO-allied communications centres and military bases, headquarters of institutions within the National Defence, Public Order and National Security System, as well as critical infrastructure.

SRI added: 'The data obtained indicate an operational pattern similar to that used on the territory of European states by sabotage networks coordinated by entities from the Russian Federation, including in the cases thwarted in Romania in 2024 and 2025: the Russian citizen was instructed by a proxy to produce photo-video materials of strategic military objectives, including Ukrainian Antonov cargo aircraft during their presence on national territory. The investigation also revealed that the Russian Federation continues to use individuals from vulnerable categories to carry out such illegal activities.' AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Eusebi Manolache; EN - writing by: Simona Klodnischi)

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