SBU: Poland extradites 16-year-old Kharkiv resident who recruited terrorist attackers

Law enforcers detained a 16-year-old Kharkiv resident who, according to them, was looking for contractors for terrorist attacks in Ukraine from the European Union. This was reported to by Security Service of Ukraine.

According to the SBU, in the fall of 2024, the minor left for the European Union. He came to Russia's attention while looking for part-time work through Telegram channels, and later began recruiting teenagers looking for "easy money.".

According to the SBU, the boy passed the contacts of the recruited teenagers to Russian agents, who subsequently gave them detailed instructions.

According to law enforcement, two of the "agents" he recruited, 15-year-old residents of Kharkiv, carried out bombings near police stations in the Sloboda and Kholodnohirsk districts of the city in December 2024.

According to investigators, a girl recruited by a 16-year-old Kharkiv resident took an improvised explosive device (IED) from a cache, and the young man made another one on his own and stuffed it with metal nuts. They then planted the explosives at the sites of the planned terrorist attacks.

A pair of teenagers were detained immediately after Russian special services remotely activated hidden IEDs.

Law enforcement officers also found that the minor involved his 21-year-old acquaintance from frontline Kostyantynivka to carry out another explosion.

According to the SBU, in early 2025, the girl arrived in Odesa, where she made an IED from plastid in a rented apartment and planted it near the administrative building of the territorial center for recruitment and social support. Then law enforcement officers managed to detain her red-handed and prevent a terrorist attack.

SBU detains minor Kharkiv resident on the western border, where he was taken by Polish law enforcement officers in connection with his forced return to the territory of Ukraine.

The suspect was served a notice of suspicion of preparing a terrorist act, arrested and faces up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.

• on October 2, the SBU detained two residents of Odesa who, on the order of the Russian Federation, planned to plant explosives in places of the largest concentration of personnel of the Defense Forces.