A Frenchman detained last month with
a large cache of arms was planning mass attacks during the Euro 2016
football tournament, which starts on Friday, Ukrainian officials say.
Intelligence chief Vasyl Hrytsak said the man had planned 15 attacks and was driven by ultra-nationalist views.
He had amassed guns, detonators and 125kg of TNT, Mr Hrytsak said.
Mr
Hrytsak listed bridges, motorways, a mosque and a synagogue among the
suspect's potential targets. He was being prosecuted for arms smuggling
and terrorism, he said. It was not clear if the tournament itself was
being targeted.
News of the man's arrest on 21 May first emerged in a report by French TV network M6.
The suspect was described as a worker at a farming co-operative from
the Lorraine area of eastern France. He had no previous criminal record,
reports said.
Ukraine's SBU security service said it had been watching the suspect
since December last year and that he had picked up five Kalashnikovs,
two anti-tank grenade launchers, some 5,000 rounds of ammunition, 100
detonators, as well as a large quantity of explosives.
However, French police sources told AFP news agency that Ukrainian
officials had yet to send them any details. There was some scepticism
that the suspect could have been anything more than an arms trafficker.
Residents in Nant-le-Petit were stunned by the arrest of Gregoire Moutaux, who lives there with his grandfather and works as a cattle inseminator.
"He's a rather nice guy, who I think is actually rather well-educated. I've even invited him over for a glass of wine. I just can't understand this," neighbour Jean-Jacques Renck told France 3 TV.
Anti-terrorism specialist Alain Bauer said Ukraine had become a big source of arms because of the continuing conflict in the east of the country.
The man detained did not fit the usual profile of an attacker, he said, pointing to the arrest last year of far-right activist Claude Hermant, accused of providing weapons to a jihadist who murdered four people at a Jewish supermarket in Paris in January 2015.
Residents in Nant-le-Petit were stunned by the arrest of Gregoire Moutaux, who lives there with his grandfather and works as a cattle inseminator.
"He's a rather nice guy, who I think is actually rather well-educated. I've even invited him over for a glass of wine. I just can't understand this," neighbour Jean-Jacques Renck told France 3 TV.
Anti-terrorism specialist Alain Bauer said Ukraine had become a big source of arms because of the continuing conflict in the east of the country.
The man detained did not fit the usual profile of an attacker, he said, pointing to the arrest last year of far-right activist Claude Hermant, accused of providing weapons to a jihadist who murdered four people at a Jewish supermarket in Paris in January 2015.
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