Russia suffered a wave of attempted arson attacks against banks, shopping malls, post offices and government buildings in the last three days, the media reports.
The press agency TASS and the independent portal Your font they pointed out that About 20 cases were recorded of individuals who tried to detonate small explosive devices or launch fireworks at buildings.
The events mainly took place in St. Petersburg, Moscow and surrounding suburbsthey will need it.
The agency TASS cited an anonymous source who stated that The people involved were recruited by online scammers in exchange for money.
Images from surveillance cameras in some places, shared on social networks, appear to show individuals who They use their mobile phones to record the fires they try to start.
Other images show the aftermath of an attack, with an ATM destroyed and nearby windows blown out. A video also shows a police car set on fire.
State bank ATMs, shopping malls, post offices, military enlistment offices, police vehicles and other administrative buildings have been attacked.
One of the videos shows a woman causing an explosion at an ATM in St. Petersburg. According to what was reported by the local press, it was a woman of about 68 years old, who was detained on suspicion of having committed the crime and a criminal case was opened against her under article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ( terrorist act).
Other people were arrested in the last hours for the other attacks.
An investigation is currently underway into the circumstances and magnitude of the explosive activities, as well as the identification of all persons involved in organizing the explosions.
The Fort shopping center, in the northeast of Moscow, had to be evacuated due to an explosion at the government services center located there. The Telegram channel Mash reports that a woman who tripped in the middle of the evacuation was taken to the hospital.
In Korolyov, authorities evacuated another integrated service center and a shopping center, as well as a post office in Khimki, Moscow region.
State lender Sberbank reported a 30 percent increase in attempted arson attacks over the past week, according to the state news agency RIA Novosti quoting the bank’s press service.
The majority of those detained were pensioners, the agency indicated TASS. Sberbank claimed that they had been recruited by people in Ukraine.
The Russian security services (FSB) warned the population that Ukrainian scammers, posing as security guards, were calling elderly people to ask them to set fires in exchange for money or to regain access to blocked accounts.
There was no reaction from kyiv to the wave of attempted attacks nor to the accusations that they were being orchestrated from Ukrainian territory.
Since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, several Russian military recruiting offices have been subject to arson attacks with Molotov cocktails.
Recruitment buildings came under further attack after President Vladimir Putin announced an unpopular recruitment drive in September 2022 in which more than 300,000 Russians were forcibly recruited to fight in the conflict.
Amid this wave of arson attacks, Ukraine brought the war to the heart of Russia this Saturday morning with drone attacks that, according to local authorities, damaged residential buildings in the city of Kazanin the Tatarstan region, more than 1,000 kilometers from the front line.
The press service of the governor of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanovreported that eight drones attacked the city. Six of them hit residential buildings, one hit an industrial facility and another was knocked over into a river, according to the statement.
Local authorities indicated that there were no victims. Flights were suspended at Kazan airport and all mass gatherings on Saturday and Sunday were cancelled.
(With information from AFP)
