The head of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) says the French national arrested in Ukraine last month was planning to stage 15 terrorist attacks during the Europe 2016 soccer championship in France.
SBU chief Vasyl Hrytsak told reporters on June 6 that the man intended to blow up "a Muslim mosque, a Jewish synagogue, tax-collection organizations, police patrol units, and numerous other locations."
On June 4, the Ukrainian Border Guard confirmed reports that a French national with a cache of weapons and explosives was arrested on the Ukrainian-Polish border in late May.
Hrytsak said the man "obtained five Kalashnikov rifles, more than 5,000 bullets, two antitank grenade launchers, 125 kilograms of [explosive material,] 100 detonators, 20 balaclavas, and other things."
Security officials in Europe are on high alert after gunmen killed 130 people in Paris in November 2015 and suicide bombers blew themselves up at Brussels airport and on the metro in March, killing 32.
