Photo from UNIAN

In Zaporizhia, law enforcers nabbed three perpetrators who intended commit an act of arson at the temple of the former Moscow Patriarchate on February 16.

The local Security Service unit has confirmed the report about the incident to a Radio Liberty correspondent.

SBU head Vasyl Hrytsak will elaborate on details on Monday, the report says.

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The three individuals, who are believed to be an organizer and two performers of the crime, are being charged with terrorism.

Law enforcers are verifying information on the group's possible involvement in other crimes across the region.

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As UNIAN reported earlier, Russian spies and Moscow-controlled "security services" in the occupied parts of Donbas have been working to recruit Ukrainian nationals who would commit arson attacks on temples operated by Orthodox priests of what was until recently called the Moscow Patriarchate.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) prevented an attempt by Russian intelligence to have a Ukrainian citizen set on fire for a US$2,000 reward a temple of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, aiming to sow tensions and discord, provoking destabilization.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Moscow continues provocations aimed against the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine: the enemy seeks to incite conflicts on religious grounds. "The enemy aims to incite conflicts around the transition [of former UOC-MP parishes to the new church], make communities stand up against each another, and test our unity, again," he said.