Two suspects have been arrested in the Chernihiv region on suspicion of plotting to carry out acts of sabotage on the railway at the behest of the Russian Federation
Operatives from the Criminal Investigation Department of the Chernihiv Regional Police, with the support of criminal analysis specialists and in collaboration with officers from the Security Service of Ukraine, and under the procedural supervision of the public prosecutor’s office, have detained two individuals suspected of planning an act of sabotage on the railway in the Chernihiv region.
According to the investigation, the suspects planned to blow up a section of railway track in order to derail a freight locomotive and disrupt transport logistics in northern Ukraine.
The investigation established that a 34-year-old resident of Kyiv and a 21-year-old woman originally from Donetsk were involved in carrying out the operation. According to the SBU, the man is a conscript who deserted his military unit and agreed to cooperate with the Russian Federation in exchange for a promise to help him leave Ukraine illegally. He recruited an acquaintance, a student at one of the capital’s higher education institutions, to take part in the illegal activities.
According to the case file, the woman purchased chemical components, mobile phones and other materials for the manufacture of homemade explosive devices. She passed the purchased items on to her accomplice, who assembled the explosives following instructions from a handler in the Russian Federation.
Prior to the planned sabotage, the suspects conducted several reconnaissance missions along the railway line to identify the most vulnerable section for detonation.
Law enforcement officers caught the suspects red-handed as they were heading to the site of the planned sabotage. According to the investigation, they were carrying two homemade explosive devices intended to be planted under the railway track.
During authorised searches of the detainees’ persons and of a rented flat in Chernihiv, where they were temporarily residing and manufacturing the explosive devices, the following items were seized: homemade explosive devices, detonators, detonators, chemical substances, laboratory equipment, components for manufacturing explosive mixtures, mobile phones, SIM cards and other means of communication.
Both were detained in accordance with Article 208 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine.
Investigators from the Security Service informed them that they were suspected under Part 3 of Article 15, Part 2 of Article 28 and Part 2 of Article 113 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine in connection with an attempted act of sabotage, committed by a group of individuals acting in concert under martial law.
The court ordered the suspects to be remanded in custody. They face life imprisonment with confiscation of property.
The pre-trial investigation is ongoing. Comprehensive measures were carried out by SBU officers in the Chernihiv region in conjunction with the National Police, under the procedural supervision of the Chernihiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
