Russian FSB has killed nearly 70 people during arrest procedures since 2022, journalists find

Since the start of Moscow’s full-scale war in Ukraine, officers from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) have killed at least 65 people during arrest operations in Russia and four more in the occupied part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, according to journalists at the independent outlet iStories.

At least 44 of those killed in Russia were Russian citizens. Another nine were identified by the FSB as nationals of unspecified Central Asian countries, while two were Kazakhstani citizens, one was Ukrainian, and one was Belarusian.

In 28 cases, the FSB accused the deceased of preparing attacks on orders from Ukrainian intelligence or volunteer units within the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Another 27 were alleged to have ties to the terrorist group Islamic State, four to its offshoot Islamic State-Khorasan, and 14 to other Islamic terrorists organizations that the FSB didn’t name.

The journalists found that killings during arrest operations occurred most often in Dagestan and Ingushetia (12 people each) and in Kabardino-Balkaria (nine people). Six more occurred were killed in the Moscow region, four in the Kaluga region, four in the Stavropol region, and four in the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region.

Charts published by iStories show that between 2018 and 2021, 35 people suspected of ties to Islamic State were killed during FSB arrests, along with 11 suspected of links to other Islamist groups and another 27 suspected of ties to armed groups in the North Caucasus. No suspects accused of working for Ukraine were killed during FSB operations in that period.