FSB Reports Interception of More Booby-Trapped FPV Goggles

The press service of Russia’s State Security Service (FSB) reported on Monday, Nov. 2, that it had intercepted a consignment of booby-trapped first-person view (FPV) drone pilots’ googles. According to their account, an unnamed number of goggles were purportedly donated by volunteers to military units engaged in Russia’s “special military operation” – President Vladimir Putin’s term for his war on Ukraine. In what appears to be a repeat of the February 2025 scheme, which was attributed to Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR), the goggles were found to contain improvised explosive devices (IEDs) containing plastic explosives intended to function when the operator switched on the goggles while wearing them.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. According to the FSB the plan was detected when a Russian serviceman in the Volgograd region became suspicious of two sets of goggles he had received in the post, and, remembering warnings issued after last year’s attack, handed them over to the FSB who x-rayed them. This showed that the cooling fans in the equipment had been removed and replaced with IEDs. The FSB then published a video of the devices being dealt with using a “demining robot,” before issuing a general warning and attempting to track down more devices originating from the source. From the images posted by the FSB, the goggles seemed to be the same or a similar model of goggles used in the earlier attack – the Chinese made Skyzone Cobra X v4 FPV googles. Other Topics of Interest Russia Launched 36 Ballistic Missiles, 1,940 Drones in the Last Week President Volodymyr Zelensky stated today that Russia launched 36 ballistic missiles and 1,940 drones this week, targeting power grids in four regions overnight. How the plot was engineered As in the 2025 attacks this plan followed much the same structure according to the FSB account. It said that Ukrainian intelligence officers, posing as patriots, used anonymous Telegram accounts to establish contact with and offered support to representatives of legitimate Russian volunteer organizations. Having identified an ongoing need for drones and FPV goggles they offered to supply the goggles directly to individual servicemen asking for the targeted soldiers to post “video messages of gratitude” on social media. The FSB said, “As a result of the measures taken, security agencies in various regions of the Russian Federation seized a batch of similar IEDs camouflaged inside FPV goggles, transmitted by the enemy through the Russian Post.” In issuing its general warning, the FSB emphasized that the “perpetrators” “acted covertly, did not disclose their personal information, phone numbers, or place of work, and refused to switch to the Max messenger app.” It added that it was searching for those who sent the IEDs and further warned that “The Ukrainian special services’ persistent focus on ‘committing terrorist attacks’ against Russian military personnel,” and called on “ volunteers, charitable organizations, and individuals of the need to obtain humanitarian aid from verified sources only and to ensure they [donations] are screened for explosive devices and toxic substances.” It followed this with a description of how “various items can be disguise IEDs. For example, IEDs disguised as perfume sets, power banks, music speakers, gift figurines, church utensils, auto parts, paving slabs, and heated shoe insoles,” saying these were examples of devices that have previously been defused. The investigative Department of the FSB in the Volgograd region said it has opened a criminal case under those parts of Russia’s criminal code relating to the illegal trafficking in explosives or explosive devices, the illegal manufacture of explosives, manufacture, alteration or repair of explosive devices and preparation for a terrorist act. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 90% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.