FSB agents planning terrorist attacks in Ukraine, EU detained

Ukraine's Security Service (SBU), the National Police, and the Prosecutor General's Office reported the information.

During complex operations in Ukraine's Carpathian region, law enforcement officers detained the organizer of an agent group and his accomplice. The men were part of a group whose activities were remotely coordinated by Russian special services.

"The criminal group consisted of 19 people who were dispersed among their places of residence in the Ivano-Frankivsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Poltava regions, as well as in Zaporizhzhia," the statement says.

The main targets were shopping centers, gas stations, pharmacies, and markets in Ukraine, Poland, and the Baltic States.

Law enforcement officers established that in order to send the arsonists abroad, the organizers prepared forged documents for them, including passports, driver's licenses, diplomas, and medical cards issued in the names of third parties. The price for making one certificate was about UAH 8,000.

"After committing the arson attacks, the perpetrators were supposed to film the fire on their own phones for further 'reporting' to the FSB. The aggressor planned to use the media files to prepare special information operations aimed at undermining the socio-political situation in the European Union," the SBU said.

Law enforcement officers simultaneously conducted about 40 searches in the Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Poltava regions, as well as in Kyiv, at the actual places of residence and in the vehicles of those involved.

Currently, the organizer of the agent group and his accomplice have been served a notice of suspicion (in accordance with the crimes committed) under the following articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, among others:

• Pt. 2, Art. 111 (high treason committed under martial law),
• Pt. 3, Art. 358 (forgery of documents, seals, stamps and forms, sale or use of forged documents, seals, stamps).

The men face life imprisonment.

Note: Pursuant to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is presumed innocent of committing a crime and shall not be subjected to criminal punishment until his or her guilt is proved by law and established by a court verdict of guilty.

• Earlier, Russian intelligence agencies reported an alleged attempt by Ukraine to stage a terrorist attack on the heavy cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov in Murmansk, as well as an attempt on the lives of three high-ranking Russian Defense Ministry officials in Moscow.