Ukraine said on Monday it had arrested a suspected far-right French extremist with a huge arsenal of weapons who allegedly planned to attack the European Championships in France this week.
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The arrest added to jitters over the staging of European football’s showcase event in France after last year’s jihadist attacks in Paris.
The man was allowed to buy five machine guns, two rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons by the Ukrainian intelligence agency, the SBU, before he was stopped as he tried to cross the border into Poland.
He meant to use weapons and ammunition to simultaneously blow up bridges and highway infrastructure across various regions of France.
Whilst in Ukraine, the suspect said he was opposed to the spread of Islam, voiced his support for extreme right-wing views and revealed plans for 15 terror attacks during Euro 2016, which starts in Paris on Friday.
They allege that he was hoping to stage a series of attacks on Muslim and Jewish sites in France during the Euro 2016 soccer championships. Islamic State extremists have threatened France during the tournament, but authorities have not confirmed specific dangers.
France is deploying 90,000 security forces for the tournament, and French President Francois Hollande said Sunday night that the threat of attacks won’t stop it from being successful.
The man was arrested in late May near the Polish border with Ukraine, Ukrainian authorities said on Monday. The source for the man’s identity wasn’t cited.
Grytsak said Ukrainian authorities suspected the French national was trying to obtain arms from unidentified groups in war-scarred eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian troops and Russia-backed separatists have fought in eastern Ukraine since April 2014, killing almost 9,400 people. It wasn’t immediately clear which side of the conflict the Frenchman had been on.
“The Frenchman spoke negatively about his government’s migration policies, the spread of Islam and globalization”, the SBU said.
French police initially reacted sceptically and said the detained man was not known to either police or intelligence services. Security officials in Europe are on high alert after Islamist militants killed 130 people in Paris last November and suicide bombers killed 32 people at Belgium’s main global airport and on the Brussels metro in March.
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Cadot promised “a close security perimeter and an outer security cordon that will create a bubble even before the checkpoints”.
