The arsonists, whom Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) recruited in Ukraine using its contacts with the local demimonde, were tasked by their handlers to set fire to markets and shopping centers, gas stations, pharmacies, and similar high-traffic targets, the SBU reported on Thursday.

“we know of several commercial facilities in Poland and the Baltic States that have been destroyed by fires. The perpetrators were also tasked with setting fire to a humanitarian aid center for Ukraine in Poland,” the Ukrainian police wrote in a post on the Telegram social media app.

As Ukrainian investigators have established, the members of the saboteur ring used their personal connections in the local criminal world in order to hire people to carry out the arsons.

They also smuggled arsonists across the Polish-Ukrainian borders using fake identification documents. such as passports, driver’s licenses, and health insurance cards, which documents would serve to “legalize” the arsonists’ stay in the countries targeted for attack.

The arsonists were also tasked with filming their deeds and sending them back to their FSB handlers to prove that they had carried out their tasks. These recordings would also serve, according to the SBU “to carry out ‘special information operations’ to destabilise the socio-political situation in the EU,” according to reporting from the Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT.

The alleged leader of the saboteur group and his accomplice are now being charged with treason and, if convicted, are facing life imprisonment for their crimes.