The youths have said they carried out arson attacks in the south of the country for money and on instructions from Ukraine’s security service
Four Russian teenagers have been detained on suspicion of planning acts of sabotage and arson against transport and energy infrastructure in Russia’s Lipetsk Region, including a plot targeting a key oil pipeline, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Tuesday. The agency claimed the group had acted under Ukrainian guidance.
The FSB said the suspects, aged 14 to 17, were recruited through online messaging platforms. Investigators said they were contacted in October via a Telegram group advertising quick earnings and were offered money in exchange for carrying out attacks.
According to the FSB, the suspects later collected an improvised explosive device from a concealed location and traveled to a section of the Druzhba pipeline.
Video released by the agency shows officers detaining the suspects, including removing them from a passenger car.
In the footage, the teenagers are shown confessing that in addition to planning to target the oil pipeline, they carried out arson attacks on instructions from people who said they were officers of Ukraine’s SBU security service. They said the targets included railway signalling equipment, electrical substations, and transformer boxes.
Searches were carried out at the suspects’ homes and the boys were remanded in custody, the agency said, adding that a criminal case had been opened on suspicion of preparing to commit sabotage. The FSB said the offense carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Moscow has repeatedly accused Kiev of staging numerous attacks and sabotage operations targeting infrastructure across Russia during the Ukraine conflict.
On Monday, the FSB warned that Ukrainian intelligence services were using phone-scam tactics to dupe Russians out of money and then pressure them into carrying out what it called terrorist acts, saying investigators were working on cases involving ten unrelated people across five regions and that complying with such demands could carry prison terms of up to 20 years.
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