Blast that injured two was ‘terrorist attack’, Ukrainian authorities say

BBC:

Two police officers have been injured in an explosion that authorities say was a “terrorist act” in the town of Bucha near the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

An explosion occurred on a residential street in the early hours of Monday. When police arrived at the site, a second blast took place, injuring two officers.

Police arrested a 21-year-old local resident who they say was recruited online to carry out the two explosions.

They did not share what platform the suspect had been been recruited on, but a security source told the BBC it had been done through the online game World of Tanks.

“He says he just wanted to make some money and was promised 25,000 hryvnyas [£450; $570] for each blast,” the Kyiv Region Criminal Iinvestigations Directorate head, Andriy Kravchuk, told the media at the scene.

The Ukrainian security service SBU issued a statement calling the suspect “a Russian agent”.

But police – who are working to establish who recruited the suspect – are not confirming any links to Russia.

They released footage of the suspect being questioned, in which he says he was blackmailed into planting the explosives.

The man said those he communicated with over the internet told him they knew where his mother was and could “see her from a drone”.

“Either you do what we tell you or something happens to your mum,” they allegedly told him.