FSB says it detained suspect in attempted murder of Russian general. Ukraine accuses the general of ordering the strike on Kyiv’s Okhmatdyt children’s hospital.
Officers with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and the country’s federal investigative authority detained a 21-year-old Moldovan citizen, Nicolae Kochu, in the Astrakhan region on suspicion of attempting to murder a Russian serviceman in the Saratov region, the agencies reported.
According to official data, the suspect fired six shots at the serviceman on September 3 in the village of Probuzhdeniye, in the Saratov region’s Engels district. The serviceman was wounded but survived; his name has not been disclosed. The FSB specified only that he holds a high-ranking military position.
Unofficial reports identify him as Major General Nikolai Varpakhovich, commander of the 22nd Heavy Bomber Aviation Division in the long-range aviation branch of Russia’s Aerospace Forces. Ukraine considers him responsible for the missile strike that hit the children’s hospital Okhmatdyt in Kyiv on July 8, 2024, when the facility had more than 600 patients and roughly as many staff members on-site. Two people died in that strike.
The FSB claimed that a Ukrainian intelligence officer recruited Kochu through social media in 2025, while he was looking for work in Moldova. He underwent “mine-explosives and firearms training in Kyiv” in 2026 and traveled to Russia in June with the aim of killing the serviceman.
Kochu was supposed to return to Moldova after the attack, but he was detained while trying to leave Russia. Authorities opened criminal cases against him for attempted murder and illegal arms trafficking.
The FSB released video of Kochu’s detention and questioning, in which he says he saw a job ad on Instagram before Ukrainian representatives contacted him. It is unclear under what circumstances the footage was recorded, and Kochu does not always manage to get his words out on the first try.
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