Two Ukrainian nationals who were arrested over an alleged plan to send explosive parcels by post to Ukraine are now facing trial in Bucharest for attempted sabotage.
Romanian prosecutors have indicted two Ukrainian men in their early 20s on charges of attempted acts of sabotage and complicity in attempted acts of sabotage in an alleged Russia-linked plot. There was no word when a trial would start.
Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism ( DIICOT) said the suspects placed two incendiary parcels in October in the offices of Ukrainian courier company Nova Post operating between EU countries and Ukraine.
“There was a real risk that (it) could have been destroyed by fire, potentially endangering national security, given that the office is located on the ground floor of a seven-storied residential building in a central, densely populated area of Bucharest,” the investigators said.
The pair who are in pre-trial detention face up to ten years in prison if convicted.
The two Ukrainians were arrested in October in coordination with the Polish authorities, who also arrested six suspects in Poland.
The Romanian Intelligence Agency, SRI said at that time that “Romania, along with other Eastern European states such as Poland and Moldova, continues to be the target of Russian aggression … whose main objective is to reduce support for Ukraine”.
Nova Post, the company targeted in the foiled bid, is Ukraine’s largest courier service, and provides a crucial link between Ukrainians living abroad and those at home.
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