Arson attacks on railroads and attempted terrorist attacks: how the FSB involves teenagers in sabotage in Ukraine

As part of a large-scale special operation conducted by the Security Service of Ukraine jointly with the National Police, 13 people suspected of collaborating with the FSB were detained. According to investigators, they were involved in arson attacks on Ukrzaliznytsia facilities, attacks on military vehicles, and planning sabotage under the guidance of Russian supervisors.

In the Vinnytsia region, two foreigners who arrived from a neighboring European country to destroy relay cabinets of the railway infrastructure were detained. One of them was taken into custody during an attempt to set fire to a power facility with a flammable substance, while the other was moving to the site of the planned sabotage.

In Odesa, law enforcement officers identified a backroom group of four people who carried out arson attacks. They acted in two separate gangs. According to the SBU, the criminals damaged at least seven-alarm relay cabinets. The detainees include a 34-year-old woman who involved her 16-year-old son in the criminal activity, as well as two other 16-year-old lyceum students. After a series of arson attacks, they tried to make an improvised explosive device for a terrorist attack near the administrative building of the territorial manning center. The SBU stopped the young men while they were preparing the explosives, preventing an explosion near the military facility.

An unemployed man was detained in Zaporizhzhia who set fire to a Defense Forces vehicle and tried to turn off a power substation on a railway line.

In Kyiv, in the Darnytskyi district, law enforcement officers detained two 18-year-old suspects who were under the influence of drugs. It was established that the young men had received an assignment from the FSB and burned down a relay cabinet on one of the capital’s railroad sections.

In addition, four more people detained earlier in the Kyiv region received new suspicions. Their actions were reclassified as sabotage committed by an organized group in wartime.

The suspects’ cell phones, clothes, and other evidence of their involvement in criminal activity were seized as part of the searches. All the detainees are currently charged under Art. 2, 3 of Article 28 and Part 2 of Article 113 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – sabotage committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy or as part of an organized group during the war.

According to the current legal norms, all offenders face life imprisonment with the possibility of property confiscation.

The operation was conducted by SBU officers in Kyiv, Odesa, Vinnytsia, and Zaporizhzhia regions. Several regional prosecutor’s offices, including the Zaporizhzhia Specialized Defense Prosecutor’s Office, were involved in the investigation.

In the Vinnytsia region, law enforcement officers detained a deputy, a lawyer, and their accomplice who extorted bribes from the relatives of a deceased soldier, promising to help with the demobilization of the deceased’s son.