Ukraine's SBU says it foiled series of planned attacks targeting civilians, judges and activist

Why it matters

The foiled plots included attacks designed to cause mass civilian casualties — a crane deliberately toppled onto an apartment building and a homemade bomb thrown into a military enlistment office — and targeted a sitting panel of judges and a civic activist, raising questions about domestic terrorism and the safety of judicial and civil-society actors in Ukraine. The suspects include a former senior State Emergency Service official and the head of a regional branch of a major political party (Batkivshchyna, according to outlets citing law-enforcement sources) who are reportedly abroad and to be placed on an international wanted list, giving the case a cross-border dimension. The operation was a controlled one: the SBU says it embedded its own people in the group and simulated the explosions, so no attack actually took place and the case rests on evidence gathered at the preparation stage.

What happened

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said it had prevented a series of planned terrorist attacks, arsons and a contract assault. According to the SBU, a criminal group planned to blow up a construction crane next to a residential complex in Chernihiv so that it would fall onto an adjacent apartment building and civilian vehicles. The SBU also said it prevented the bombing of a Territorial Centre of Complement and Social Support (TCC) building in Prykarpattia; the "executors" had been instructed to build an explosive device from plastic explosive and electric detonators and throw it through a window of the administrative building. The SBU documented the group's activities at the preparation stage, embedding controlled operatives in the group and simulating the explosions, which allowed it to intercept the plots before any device was detonated.

A former deputy head of the State Emergency Service (DSNS) allegedly ordered the bombing of the private homes of the chief justice and two other judges of the Chernihiv Court of Appeal — the same panel that sentenced him in 2024 to seven years in prison for car theft. The same former official is also accused of ordering an attack on a local activist, a blogger from Chernihiv Oblast: the instructions were to shoot his limbs and douse him with sulfuric acid.

The main suspects are the former DSNS deputy head and the head of a Chernihiv regional branch of a political party, who according to law-enforcement sources cited by Ukrainska Pravda and LIGA.net are Oleh Averyanov (DSNS deputy head in 2015–2016) and Dmytro Nikitin (head of the Chernihiv regional Batkivshchyna organisation). The party-branch head and an accomplice, both currently abroad, were notified of suspicion in absentia and are to be put on an international wanted list; the SBU says the branch head organised and financed terrorist attacks and arsons in western and northern Ukraine. Suspects were charged under several articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, including attempted terrorist act, attempted intentional grievous bodily harm, and preparation to destroy or damage a judge's property by arson or explosion.

How Ukrainian sources describe it

All of the sources covering the story are Ukrainian, and they report it in essentially the same terms, foregrounding the SBU's version of events: that the attacks were prevented at the preparation stage through simulated explosions and controlled operatives, and that the suspects face charges under specific articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Several Ukrainian outlets — including Babel, Ukrainska Pravda and LIGA.net — go beyond the SBU's anonymised wording and name the suspects as Oleh Averyanov, the former deputy head of the State Emergency Service, and Dmytro Nikitin, head of the Chernihiv regional Batkivshchyna organisation, attributing the identification to their own law-enforcement sources. Some Ukrainian outlets place the case in a broader recent pattern of foiled attacks, pointing to President Volodymyr Zelensky's late-July statement about a Russian special-services attempt to assassinate a 'Khartiia' commander and the SBU's 10 September announcement that it had foiled an attempt on Hennadiy Druzenko, president of the First Volunteer Mobile Hospital.

Background

In 2024, the Chernihiv Court of Appeal sentenced the former DSNS deputy head to seven years in prison for car theft; the SBU says that conviction was the motive for his orders to bomb the judges' homes and to attack the activist-blogger from Chernihiv Oblast. Law-enforcement sources cited by Ukrainska Pravda and LIGA.net identified the former DSNS official as Oleh Averyanov, who served as DSNS deputy head in 2015–2016, and the head of the Chernihiv regional Batkivshchyna organisation as Dmytro Nikitin.