MOSCOW (AFP) — Russia said on Thursday that it had arrested four alleged members of a pro-Ukraine paramilitary group preparing attacks on Russian territory, including poisoning Russian soldiers.

The four were arrested in the city of Saint Petersburg, the FSB security service said in a statement.

“The FSB has put an end to the illegal activities in Saint Petersburg of a clandestine cell of the Ukrainian paramilitary group, Russian Volunteer Corps, that was acting in the interests of Ukrainian intelligence services,” it said.

The four residents of Russia’s second city “were planning to poison with a very toxic substance food products that were destined as humanitarian aid to the Russian soldiers” fighting in Ukraine, it said.

The four were also allegedly “carrying out reconnaissance on vital infrastructure and transport sites... in Saint Petersburg and the Leningrad region in order to then prepare attacks,” it said. 

Russia this week has faced waves of drone strikes, including in the region of Leningrad, around Saint Petersburg.

Russian Volunteer Corps, along with Freedom of Russia Legion and Sibir, is a group of volunteer fighters made up of Russian citizens who oppose the Kremlin.

The volunteer fighters said this week they had crossed into Russia from Ukraine and captured a village in the Kursk region, with Russian authorities saying they had beaten back the attack.

On Wednesday the pro-Kyiv militias urged civilians to flee the cities of Belgorod and Kursk near the Ukraine border, threatening large-scale attacks on military targets there.

In March 2023, Russian Volunteer Corps claimed to be behind an incursion in the Russian border region of Bryansk, which according to Russian authorities left two civilians dead.

Meanwhile, the defense ministry on Thursday said that 14 Ukrainian drones were destroyed overnight over the regions of Belgorod and Kursk on the border with Ukraine.

It marked the latest wave of drone attacks on Russian territory this week, ahead of presidential elections on 15 to 17 March that are all but guaranteed to hand President Vladimir Putin another six years in power.

Eleven drones were shot down over the region of Belgorod and three over the region of Kursk, the defense ministry said in a statement.