By Yuliia Dysa and Tom Balmforth
KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine accused Russian spies of orchestrating multiple bomb attacks on its draft offices, as officials reported a new explosion on Wednesday that killed one person and hurt four more at a conscription centre in the west of the country.
The explosion in the Khmelnytskyi region was the latest in a series of incidents involving draft offices and conscription officers. One such officer was shot dead at a petrol station last week.
“We… understand this is a deliberate attack by Russian special services that aims to create a false opinion in society, destabilise the situation and create a negative attitude towards the security and defence forces,” national police chief Ivan Vyhivskyi said.
He did not provide evidence of Russian involvement, though such information is generally withheld for security reasons.
In Wednesday’s incident, a man approached a checkpoint at a draft office in the Khmelnytskyi region, clutching a bag and asking to hand over a package, Vyhivskyi said. An explosion then occurred, killing the man and wounding four others, he added.
Vyhivskyi said there had already been nine attacks organised by Russia this year, including three targeting police officers. He did not elaborate on the individual cases and what they had involved.
He said Russian intelligence officers were recruiting young men or people of “low social responsibility” to stage the attacks in return for money.
“The Russians in most cases do not pay the money to these people. Moreover, these last two cases – including today’s – indicate they liquidate the people they recruit,” Vyhivskyi said.
There was no immediate comment from Russia on the Ukrainian allegations.
PILING ON PRESSURE
In a similar case last Saturday a young man was blown up by an explosive device he had brought into a draft office in the northwestern city of Rivne, Ukraine’s SBU domestic security agency said in a statement on Wednesday.
The SBU said Russian spies had recruited the man and Russian security officers detonated the device remotely after he had entered the draft office. Eight Ukrainian servicemen were wounded in the blast, it said.
The spate of incidents prompted Ukraine’s army chief on Monday to publicly condemn them and call for punishment for the perpetrators.
The blasts have piled more pressure on an already troubled national campaign to draft civilians into the armed forces.
Enthusiasm among many military-age men to enlist in the military has faded considerably since the war’s early days. Senior military officials openly point to manpower shortages as a problem at the front, where Russian troops are advancing.
Ukrainian officials regularly report uncovering operations by the Russian security service and its agents. It accuses them of spying, supplying coordinates of military targets, setting fire to military vehicles and other malign activities.
(Reporting by Yuliia DysaEditing by Tom Balmforth and Gareth Jones)
