Russian spies have been blamed for a series of bombings at Ukrainian army recruitment offices as tensions run high over the war-weary nation’s divisive mobilisation drive.
An explosion at a draft centre on Wednesday in western Ukraine killed one person and wounded four others. It was the latest of a string of such incidents in recent weeks.
“We clearly understand, together with the Security Service of Ukraine, that this is a specific attack by the special services of the Russian Federation to... destabilise the situation,” said Ivan Vyhivskyi, Ukraine’s national police chief.
A man approached the Kamianets-Podilsky district territorial centre, clutching a bag and asking to hand over a package, which then exploded, Mr Vyhivskyi said.
He added that there have been nine such similar attacks orchestrated by Russian intelligence officers already this year.
Kyiv has long been facing the steep challenge of maintaining troop levels in the face of high casualties and against a much larger enemy.
The Ukrainian government has been facing widespread criticism for its efforts to mobilise men using more coercive methods, including reportedly pulling men off the streets and using intimidation and sometimes physical force to recruit them.
Three detained for earlier attack
On Wednesday, Ukrainian police announced they had detained three men accused of attacking a recruitment centre in the central city of Pavlograd on Russian orders.
The suspects were “recruited via messenger and promised a monetary reward for committing the crime”, police said. “On the instructions of their Russian handler, the traitors manufactured explosives and detonated them near the object he had designated.”
On Saturday, one person was killed and six were wounded by an explosive device at a draft centre in the north-western city of Rivne. Earlier in the day, a man with a hunting rifle shot dead a Ukrainian army recruitment soldier and escaped with a conscript before both were caught by police.
But as the country struggles to recruit men, Ukraine announced on Wednesday that it is fast-tracking the introduction of robotic vehicles on the front line to spare soldiers.
Mykhailo Fedorov, the digital transformation minister, said uncrewed ground vehicles could relieve pressure on recruitment. “Our goal is to create a military where innovative technologies help perform the most dangerous tasks, saving the lives of our defenders,” he said.