State security agency said it identified and detained a person in Chernihiv  behind  multiple hoax bomb threats that jolted the city in early January.

The Chernihiv SBU office revealed the threats came from a local student who used a close Telegram channel to send threats promising to set off explosive devices planted in nine local schools.

Law enforcement officials said they seized the young man’s computer and a mobile phone and are leading a criminal investigation.

the photo by the SBU press service

His malign acts that forced massive evacuations in schools  and led to a days-long scare were ‘coordinated by Russian curators,  added  the security service in a statement issued on Tuesday.

Recruited  Ukrainians for such acts are promised anonymity and given clear instructions, argued investigators, noting that people ‘fail to realize all the consequences of disruptions they can cause to public service objects’.

Over few last weeks,  Ukraine has been hit with a deluge of hoax bomb threats targeting hundreds of universities, schools and shopping centers across the country, which prompted allegations such scare campaigns can be orchestrated by Russian intelligence agencies seeking to inject panic and fear in Ukrainians.