Ukrainian Authorities Stop Russian-Backed Teen Terror Plot in Dnipro

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has detained an 18-year-old student in Dnipro who was allegedly recruited by Russian intelligence to build improvised explosive devices (IEDs) for a series of planned terrorist attacks in the city.

According to the SBU’s press release on Tuesday, Nov. 18, the suspect is a student at a local vocational college.

The SBU said the student began searching for “easy money” in Telegram channels, where he was noticed by Russian operatives who then remotely recruited him.

After initial contact, he allegedly received funds from Russia to relocate to a rented apartment in Dnipro and purchase components needed to assemble the bombs.

SBU counterintelligence officials said the man set up a homemade laboratory inside the apartment, where his handlers instructed him to build IEDs disguised as fire extinguishers and equip them with mobile phones for remote detonation.

The student “was supposed to receive coordinates from his Russian supervisor indicating where to place the finished device for a future terrorist attack,” the SBU said.

The SBU said investigators tracked the suspect’s communications with his Russian handler and his purchase of materials funded by Russian intelligence. Officers moved in before any attack could take place, arresting him while he was assembling his first bomb.

During a search of the apartment, SBU officers found bomb components and the smartphone used to maintain contact with the Russian handler.

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The suspect has been informed of charges under Part 1 of Article 14 and Part 2 of Article 258 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code (Preparation for a Terrorist Act). He is currently in custody without the right to bail and faces up to 12 years in prison with asset confiscation if convicted.

SBU officers in the Dnipropetrovsk region carried out the operation under the procedural supervision of the regional prosecutor’s office, the SBU wrote.