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Two Ukrainians agree to terrorist attack to avoid prison time in their country — FSB

It is reported that they had been tasked to commit a terrorist act in a crowded place

MOSCOW, November 28./TASS/. Two Ukrainian nationals, detained for plotting a chain of terrorist attacks in the Zaporozhye region, have said that they only agreed to commit these crimes in order to escape prison terms in their country, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said, as shown in a video of the interrogation, which was released on Monday.

According to one of the perpetrators, he and a friend of his committed a robbery in Ukraine. "A law enforcement officer got in touch with us, saying that they would ‘cover up for us’, while we would go to Melitopol for subversive activity," one of the arrested Ukrainians said.

He said that they had been tasked to commit a terrorist act in a crowded place. For this purpose, they took two pistols, a grenade and an explosive with a detonator from a hidden cache. "When we were about to drive towards the market, police officers stopped us and found the explosives," the man said.

A second detainee said that after committing a crime in Ukraine he received an offer to meet with a security officer and work for the Ukrainian Security Service. "We agreed, we went to Melitopol. We received orders to make a home-made explosive device and detonate it in a crowded place," he said.

The third detainee, according to the video, was a woman who drove the men to the site where the bomb was planted. According to her, she knew that they were carrying an explosive device.

As the FSB reported earlier, a chain of terrorist attacks in crowded places was prevented in the Zaporozhye region. Three Ukrainian nationals were detained as they were heading to the site where an explosive device was to have been planted in one of the city's markets.

Two of them were previously convicted of serious crimes committed in Ukraine. "They confessed to having acted on instructions from the Ukrainian special services in order to intimidate civilians in the Zaporozhye region," the FSB reported. The FSB did not identify the three, citing the ongoing investigation.

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