MOSCOW. Sept 26 (Interfax) - Six Russian citizens have been detained in the Irkutsk, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara regions for setting fire to railway and communication infrastructure on orders from Ukrainian security services, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said.
"The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, working together with the Russian Investigative Committee and the Russian Interior Ministry, has identified and detained six Russian citizens in the Irkutsk, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara regions for setting fire to railway and communication infrastructure. Three of them are minors, born in 2007 and 2009," the FSB public relations center said on Thursday.
Criminal cases were opened on terror attack counts, and the detainees' actions are being checked for formal elements of treason, it said.
"In totality, they are facing from 12 to 20 years in prison, or even life imprisonment," the FSB said.
The questioning yielded "the suspects' confessions and proof of their involvement in the criminal activity by Ukrainian security services for a remuneration of 10,000 to 15,000 rubles," it said.
Later on, the FSB public relations center released a video with the questioning of the detainees.
All of them said they set fire to mobile communication towers having received the assignment on Telegram.
One of the suspects said he was given guidelines on making explosives via the messenger after he set fire to a tower.
"[Guidelines were sent] for more serious projects: trains, tank cars, commercial trains," he said.
Another detainee said he was tasked with "setting fire to a plane."
In turn, Russian Interior Ministry spokesperson Irina Volk told reporters that the three minors aged from 15 to 17 were detained in the Irkutsk region. "The initial findings indicate that they broke into a railway relay cabinet and set fire to it. The police rapidly identified and detained the suspects," Volk said.
The minors told the interrogators they "were following the instructions received from an unknown person via a messenger," she said.
Each minor was paid 15,000 rubles for the crime.
"An investigator from the Russian Interior Ministry's Irkutsk Passenger [railway terminal] police department opened a criminal case under Article 205 of the Russian Criminal Code. During the preliminary investigation, the detainees confessed to another crime, such as setting fire to a mobile communication tower," Volk said.
The minors were placed under arrest, and their case was directed to a respective division of the Russian Investigative Committee.