The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) announced the arrest of seven people, including three fourteen-year-old teenagers, who were recruited by Moscow to carry out attacks with improvised explosive devices, Agence France-Presse reported, BTA reported.
„Preventive measures led to the arrest of seven agents of the Russian security services – FSB, who were preparing to kill Ukrainian defenders using improvised explosive devices,“ the SSU said in “Telegram“.
Of those arrested, three are minors, and two are 18 years old.
According to the SSU, a fourteen-year-old girl from the Poltava region is accused of making and hiding an explosive device in an apartment where Russian services planned to lure a Ukrainian soldier.
Two classmates, also 14 years old, made and planted an improvised bomb under a police car in Dnipro. They were arrested as they were “preparing to activate the explosive device“, the security services said.
Four other men aged between 18 and 30 were arrested in Kryvyi Rih and Khmelnytskyi.
They were all allegedly recruited through Telegram channels promising “easy money”, the SSU said.
If found guilty, they face sentences ranging from 12 years in prison to life in prison with confiscation of property.
Since the start of the Russian invasion in 2022, Ukraine and Russia regularly accuse each other of attacks and sabotage, including by recruiting locals on social media, AFP notes.
In March, a 17-year-old teenager died and a 15-year-old was seriously injured in an explosion in Ivano-Frankivsk, which the Ukrainian SSR blamed on Russian services.