Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said it arrested two Russian agents responsible for setting off a bomb at a local shopping mall on Christmas Eve.
The SBU’s Friday press release said “a 23-year-old drug addict” from Berdychiv, a city in Ukraine’s Zhytomyr region, made the improvised explosive device (IED) and handed it over to a 41-year-old accomplice from Mariupol to set off the bomb, which went off under the door to a shopping mall in Berdychiv on Dec. 24.
JOIN US ON TELEGRAM
Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.
The SBU said the IED was “disguised in a food container and filled with metal balls from ball bearings to enhance the impact,” ostensibly made under instructions “from a curator from the Russian Federation.”
According to the press release, the 41-year-old suspect detonated the bomb from a distance “using a mobile phone and a homemade electric detonator attached to the explosive,” where he recorded the act with a “mobile phone hidden in a box” opposite the mal, broadcasting it in real-time.
The SBU said no one was injured in the blast. Working alongside Ukraine’s National Police, it arrested the 41-year-old suspect within two hours when he attempted to board a bus to Kyiv. The SBU said it arrested the 23-year-old suspect at her roommate’s residence a few hours later.
The SBU believed the attack was financially motivated.
“According to the case materials, the perpetrator of the terrorist attack was a 41-year-old immigrant from Mariupol, who had previously served time for robbery, theft, and drug crimes.
US Ramps Up Weapons Aid to Ukraine Following Moscow’s Christmas Strike
“The IED was made by a 23-year-old drug addict from Berdychiv, who came to the attention of the occupiers when she was looking for money for a ‘dose’ in Telegram channels,” the press release states.
The two are charged with committing a terrorist act and face up to 12 years in prison and confiscation of property if convicted.
You can also highlight the text and press Ctrl + Enter
