Ukraine detains three suspected Russian agents over arson attempts PHOTO

Ukraine’s Security Service (SSU), in cooperation with the National Police, has detained three individuals accused of acting on instructions from Russian special services and attempting to carry out arson attacks in several regions of the country, authorities said.

According to the SSU press service, two of the suspects were apprehended in the central city of Kropyvnytskyi. A 19-year-old local resident allegedly attempted to set fire to a district council building in the regional centre, while a 21-year-old unemployed man tried to torch a branch of Ukrposhta, Ukraine’s state-owned postal operator. Both were detained at the scene and found in possession of gasoline-filled canisters.  

Investigators said the two men had been recruited by Russian handlers through dating websites and messaging applications, a tactic Ukrainian authorities say has increasingly been used to target young and vulnerable individuals.

In a separate incident in the western city of Chernivtsi, SSU counterintelligence officers detained a 24-year-old foreign national from a Middle Eastern country as he attempted to set fire to technological equipment at a key electrical substation. The suspect had reportedly planned to use five liters of gasoline and was apprehended during the attempted attack.

All three detainees have been charged with sabotage and the deliberate destruction of property by arson. They are currently being held in custody and face the prospect of life imprisonment with confiscation of property if convicted.

By Vafa Guliyeva