The Security Service of Ukraine and the National Police detained two saboteurs in Kyiv who were preparing a series of arson attacks on Ukrzaliznytsya facilities on the instructions of Russian intelligence.
This was reported by the SBU.
The main targets of the Russians were relay cabinets of signalling installations on strategically important railway routes in the region.
For the sabotage, the Russians engaged a local 22-year-old repeat offender who came to Russia's attention because of his convictions for hooliganism and fraud.
At the end of July this year, a representative of the Russian special service contacted the young man in a telegram and offered him cooperation. In return for Russian money, his accomplice was to burn down a relay cabinet near one of the Ukrzaliznytsya freight stations in Kyiv.
The Kyiv resident engaged his 17-year-old acquaintance, a local labourer, to carry out the hostile task.
The saboteurs conducted additional reconnaissance near the potential target at night, took photos of it and sent them to their Russian handler for "approval". They then purchased tools to break into the protective panel of the electrical equipment and a flammable mixture.
Waiting for dusk, the saboteurs broke the door of the relay cabinet and set fire to its technological part. The suspects then filmed the fire on a mobile phone camera to "report" to the Russians.
The attackers were to continue a series of arson attacks on Kyiv's railway infrastructure, but both saboteurs were detained in hot pursuit.
During the searches of the detainees' residences, the SBU seized mobile phones with evidence of their subversive activities in favour of Russia. The SBU also found "working equipment" used to commit the arson.
The SBU investigators served the offenders a notice of suspicion under the Criminal Code of Ukraine (sabotage committed by a group of persons under martial law).
The repeat offender is currently in custody, and his accomplice was chosen as a measure of restraint in the form of nightly house arrest. Both offenders face life imprisonment with confiscation of property.