Russian Security Service says it foiled 306 school attack plots since 2018

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) says it has prevented 306 planned armed attacks on educational institutions, according to a statement from the agency’s Public Relations Centre.

The FSB claimed that Ukrainian special services are using popular foreign messaging apps and certain online platforms to recruit Russian citizens—primarily young people—into illegal activity and to promote what it described as subcultures encouraging violence, suicide, hatred, and fraud schemes.

The agency referred to the 2018 attack on the Kerch Polytechnic College, which it said was coordinated by a Ukrainian handler and resulted in 20 deaths and 67 injuries. It also stated that since then, 20 attacks on Russian educational institutions have taken place, leaving 57 people dead and 203 injured.

According to the FSB, 306 planned attacks were stopped at the preparation stage.

The agency also alleged that online groups promoting violence are often linked to so-called “swatting” communities involved in mass fake bomb threat reports and the spread of destructive ideologies among young people.

It said that in 2025, 84 administrators and participants of such swatting groups were prosecuted for involvement in more than 2,500 false reports of bomb threats targeting Russian facilities.

In addition, the FSB stated that since the beginning of 2026, 118 operators of SIM-box systems have been detained. These devices, according to the agency, are used to route international calls through Russian numbers in order to facilitate fraud against citizens.