The new and secret Russian unit is said to have been created in 2023 as a response to the Western world's support for Ukraine's resistance against the Russian war of aggression.
The unit is behind, among other things, the attempted murder of a CEO of the German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall and revealed plans for attacks on transport planes from DHL, according to the information.
SSD has taken over part of the security service FSB's assignments and has also incorporated a previous unit called 29155. It has been accused of being behind the poisoning of the Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in the UK in 2018.
In addition to murder and sabotage, SSD is tasked with carrying out cyber attacks, infiltrating Western companies and universities, and recruiting and training agents abroad.
SSD, whose work is led by General Andrei Vladimirovich Averyanov and Lieutenant General Ivan Sergevich Kasianenko, also runs Senezh, an elite program developed for Russian special forces.
Correction: In an earlier version, the poisoning attack on Sergei Skripal in 2018 was incorrectly described.
