SBU, police detain arsonists who set fire to military vehicles in Kyiv, Dnipro, Kryvyy Rih

The SBU and the National Police detained three more groups of arsonists who operated in different regions of Ukraine and worked for Russia.

This was reported by the SBU press service.

According to the agency, agents of the Russian special services carried out arson attacks in Dnipro and Transcarpathian Regions.

The suspects targeted official cars and private residences of the Defence Forces. 

‘To commit arsons, the occupants remotely recruited young men who were looking for ‘easy money’ in Telegram channels. On the instructions of the Russian special services, the suspects first scouted the locations of potential targets, and then committed arsons and recorded them on their own phones,’ the SBU added.

In particular, two residents of Kyiv were detained who organised a series of arsons on the cars of TRC employees in Transcarpathian Region. Among the organisers of the crime is a Kyiv recidivist who had previously served a sentence for drug trafficking. It was he who received the Russian Federation's ‘order’ to destroy the Armed Forces of Ukraine's military vehicles in the western region of Ukraine.

Together with an accomplice, he recruited several residents from Uzhhorod and Mukachevo to carry out arson attacks on the vehicles of Ukrainian defenders.

The next target of the enemy was the private residences of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and their families.

According to the instructions, the perpetrators were to pour a flammable mixture on the front door of the apartment of a Ukrainian serviceman from Transcarpathia and set fire to it.

They were detained in hot pursuit.

In Dnipro, the SBU detained three more residents of the frontline region who had burnt five Ukrainian Armed Forces vehicles in the regional centre.

In Kryvyy Rih, two enemy accomplices were detained as they tried to burn a service minibus that the military had driven to the city after performing combat missions at the frontline. Law enforcement officers detained all the perpetrators in ‘hot pursuit’ and notified them of suspicion under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (in accordance with the crimes committed):

▪️ part 1 of Article 114-1 (obstruction of the lawful activities of the Armed Forces and other military formations); ▪️ part 2 of Article 194 (intentional destruction or damage to property committed by arson, explosion or other generally dangerous means).

The detainees are in custody. They face up to 10 years in prison.

The operation was conducted by SBU officers in Dnipro and Transcarpathian Regions jointly with the National Police under the supervision of regional prosecutors.