SBU says it has arrested seven people, including teenagers: Accused of being recruited by Russia to carry out attacks

Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) said today it had arrested seven people, including three teenagers aged 14, accused of being recruited by Moscow via the Telegram messaging service to carry out attacks using homemade explosives.

"Preventive measures led to the arrest of seven FSB (Russian security services) officers who were preparing to kill Ukrainian defenders using homemade explosive devices," the SBU said in a statement.

Among those arrested, three are minors, and two are only 18 years old.

A 14-year-old teenager in the Poltava region in the east has been charged with making and hiding an explosive device in an apartment where Russian services planned to lure a Ukrainian soldier, the SBU said in a statement.

Two 14-year-old teenagers, schoolmates, made and planted a homemade bomb under a police car in Dnipro, in the east of the country.

They were arrested while "preparing to detonate an explosive device," the SBU said.

Four men, aged between 18 and 30, were arrested in Kryvyi Rih (central Ukraine) and Khmelnytskyi (western Ukraine).

All were allegedly recruited through Telegram channels "where they were promised 'easy money,'" the statement added.

If convicted, they face a sentence of 12 years to life in prison with confiscation of property.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion in 2022, Ukraine and Russia have regularly accused each other of attacks and sabotage, including recruiting local residents on social media.

In March, a 17-year-old boy was killed and another 15-year-old seriously injured in an explosion in Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine. The SBU attributed the incident to Russian intelligence services.