MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and Investigative Committee have detained a teenager in the Bashkortostan Region for inciting high school students to take part in terrorist activities and planning to carry out a terrorist attack on an Orthodox church at the behest of Ukraine, the FSB reported.

"After the Ukrainian handler received a video of the teenager pledging allegiance and made sure he was ready to carry out acts of terrorism on behalf of a terrorist organization, he ordered him to find and collect information on Orthodox churches and Jewish communities in the city of Ufa that could be targeted in a terrorist attack," an FSB officer said in a video statement.

Later, the handler provided the teenager with "a manual on how to assemble improvised explosive devices in order to kill civilians and create chaos." "The terrorist was unable to carry out his criminal act as he was detained just in time," the FSB stressed.

According to the FSB officer, earlier, some accounts on the Telegram messenger and the TikTok social media platform were identified as promoting the activities of an international terrorist organization. FSB officers found out that the accounts belonged to a teenage boy living in Ufa, the capital of Bashkortostan. "He was recruited by a terrorist group through an account that Ukrainian intelligence agencies had already used to coerce Russian nationals into terrorist activities," the FSB officer specified.

As directed by his handler, the teenager tried to persuade his classmates and other school and college students to join the terrorist organization.

According to Russian Investigative Committee Spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko, the teenager has been charged with terrorist offenses and awaits trial.