Law enforcement officers neutralized in Kharkiv a Russian operative group that blew up a car with a Ukrainian soldier and was preparing new terrorist attacks. UNN reports with reference to the SBU.
Details
According to the SBU, all four members of the group were detained. They were local residents: a Kharkiv software engineer, a former military man and two unemployed people.
In June of this year, the perpetrators blew up the car of an Armed Forces serviceman. The Ukrainian defender was seriously injured in the explosion. To carry out the attack, they reportedly tracked down the car's parking lot in Kharkiv and planted an improvised explosive device under it.
It is noted that the group's activities were coordinated by a DNR special forces militant who is fighting against Ukraine on the eastern front and cooperating with the Russian group. On his instructions, after blowing up the car of a Ukrainian soldier, the agents were preparing the next terrorist attack against the Defense Forces.
To do this, they made another explosive device and tried to hide it in a pre-arranged cache.
At the same time, the defendants were tasked with tracking and derailing a railroad train that was transporting military equipment to the front line.
One of the defendants was detained red-handed in a forest belt, where he was trying to hide a box with an explosive device in a cache. The others were detained at their residential addresses.
The detainees were served suspicion notices under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:
- part 2 of Article 111 (high treason committed under martial law);
- Part 1, Article 263 (illegal handling of explosives).
The issue of additional qualification of agents' crimes under Articles 113 (sabotage) and 258 (terrorist act) is also being considered.
The offenders are in custody. They face life imprisonment with confiscation of property.