The Security Service of Ukraine and the National Police have prevented a series of terrorist attacks targeting Ukrainian Defense Forces in various regions. As a result of coordinated operations, six FSB agents were detained. They had been preparing to target Ukrainian defenders using improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
All suspects were recruited by Russian intelligence services via Telegram channels offering “easy” money.
In Kyiv, two members of an organized sabotage group were detained while attempting to plant explosives near a military facility. Both were local residents with drug addictions. Their actions were directed by an inmate in pre-trial detention, who had previously set fire to a Ukrainian military vehicle. He recruited his cellmate, and the two continued to carry out assignments for Russia from behind bars by involving two accomplices outside prison.
In Vinnytsia, an FSB agent was caught in the act of planting explosives near an apartment building housing military families. The 19-year-old from Zhytomyr region had been deployed to Vinnytsia by his handler after retrieving an IED from a stash.
In Dnipro, a couple acting as Russian agents attempted to assassinate a Ukrainian soldier. They lured him into a trap under the pretext of a date with the "sister" of a fellow soldier on the frontline. Before the meeting, the woman asked the soldier to collect her “brother’s” belongings from an acquaintance—who handed him a bag containing an explosive device. The attackers tried to detonate the IED remotely after the handoff, but law enforcement had already neutralized the device and apprehended the pair.
In Rivne, another terrorist was arrested for planning to blow up a Defense Forces vehicle. He placed an IED in the car and installed a hidden camera to monitor the arrival of the target and detonate the device remotely.
The suspects have been charged under several articles of Ukraine’s Criminal Code, including:
- Part 2, Article 111: High treason during wartime
- Part 3, Article 28; Part 2, Article 113: Sabotage committed by an organized group during wartime
- Part 2, Article 15; Part 2, Article 258: Attempted terrorist act committed by a group of individuals
- Part 3, Article 28; Part 1, Article 263: Illegal handling of explosives by an organized group
The defendants face life imprisonment with confiscation of property.
The operations were carried out by SSU officers in Kyiv, as well as in the Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Rivne, and Zaporizhzhia regions under the procedural supervision of the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office and regional prosecutors.
