Court remanded three suspects in custody for preparing terrorist attacks in Odesa

A court has remanded in custody without bail three men who were detained by an SBU officer in Odesa on suspicion of preparing terrorist attacks against military personnel and their families.

According to the press service of the Security Service of Ukraine, the attacks were to be carried out through the remote activation of homemade bombs.

"In this way, the Russian special services hoped not only to eliminate the military, but also to spread panic among the civilian population of Ukraine," the SBU said.

According to the SBU's Main Department of Internal Security and Investigation, the main targets of the Russian agents were the SBU special forces and the Armed Forces of Ukraine involved in the fighting on the southern front.

Initially, the defendants tracked the residences of Ukrainian defenders and the parking lots of their cars for a long time. Later, they received coordinates of a cache from the federal security service, from which they took two improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The perpetrators planned to plant both bombs at the entrance to the apartment of two members of the Defense Forces.

Then the terrorists had to take new IEDs from the caches to blow up the cars of the next targets. The SBU officers acted proactively and detained the suspects when they were driving to the apartments of the Ukrainian military with explosive devices.

According to the case file, the enemy's tasks were carried out by three local FSB agents - a 36-year-old man who evaded mobilization and his two accomplices: a deserter and a representative of a public organization for the protection of public order.

At the place of detention, bombs and smartphones were seized from them, which they used to coordinate their actions with a Russian special agent. SBU investigators informed the agents of suspicion of high treason committed under martial law.

If proven guilty, the men face imprisonment for fifteen years or life with confiscation of property.

It should be noted that this is not the first time that representatives of NGOs, who, according to their statute, help the police to protect public order, have been among the suspects in crimes. For example, the Khadzhybeyskyi District Court of Odesa found guilty of receiving illegal benefits and organizing illegal transportation of persons across the state border of Ukraine and sentenced a member of the public order protection organization Varta Pivdenia to 8 years in prison with confiscation of property, who was not the first to be tried.

Earlier, the Center for Public Investigations released an investigative film "Guarding the Odesa Cauldron," in which journalists investigated that there are 36 civil society groups in Odesa Oblast that cooperate with the police. It turned out that many of the groups were essentially inactive. It is unclear why they were registered. It is also doubtful that the members of these groups are patrolling the settlements. A number of groups are de facto security companies that receive budget contracts.

The Center for Public Investigations also separately investigated the activities of two civil society groups that cooperate with the police in Odesa, allegedly to strengthen security and public order measures in the city. The two organizations, the Alfa Plus and PSPO, had become known at the time for being at the epicenter of various scandals.

Кирило Бойко