The Security Service of Ukraine and the National Police have apprehended seven accomplices of russian intelligence services who carried out arson attacks in Odesa and Zhytomyr oblasts.

The enemy priority targets were vehicles of military servicemen and administrative buildings, as well as objects on Ukrainian railways and mobile communications facilities.

The occupiers remotely recruited local residents who were looking for ‘easy money’ on Telegram.

In Odesa region, five suspects have been detained: they are residents of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi aged 21 to 34. One of them is a repeat offender who had previously committed thefts.

The perpetrators burned down two relay cabinets and a transformer substation on the railway line.

The law enforcement agencies detained the arsonists when they tried to set fire to two mobile phone towers and several buildings of local village councils.

Another two suspects were detained in hot pursuit in Zhytomyr region. One of them is an 18-year-old student of a local vocational school who burned down an AFU off-road vehicle.

The other is a 21-year-old repeat offender who had previously been prosecuted for theft. He set fire to the administrative building of the local village council. To carry out the arson, he broke the glass in the building and threw a flammable mixture inside.

During the searches, the investigators found clothes, arson tools and mobile phones with evidence of the crimes.

The detained individuals have been notified of suspicion under three Articles of the CCU:

• 113.2 (sabotage, committed under martial law);
• 114-1.1 (obstruction of lawful activities of the AFU and other military formations);
• 194.2 (intentional destruction or damage to property by arson).

The criminal actions of the arsonists from Odesa region will be classified as willful damage or destruction of a telecommunications network.

The suspects are in custody and face from 8 years of imprisonment to life imprisonment with confiscation of property.

The operations were conducted by the SSU Offices in Odesa and Zhytomyr regions jointly with the National Police under the procedural supervision of the regional prosecutor’s offices.