Two teenagers are suspected of blowing up a helicopter after reportedly being paid to carry out the attack in Russia.
A 13-year-old Timur and his pal Sasha, 14, have gotten themselves in hot water after allegedly targeting a Mi-8T chopper armed with lit cigarettes and fuel.
The schoolboys from Noyabrsk – located in the west Siberian oilfields – are accused of the attack and causing serious damage, leading to their arrest, MailOnline reports.
Russian law enforcement officials have claimed the act left the helicopter ‘almost completely wrecked.’
The pair suffered significant facial and hand burns, forcing them to get medical help which led to their capture.
The chopper is thought to have been used to service the oil and gas infrastructure in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region of Siberia.
The schoolboys claimed they were offered around £42,000 on the Telegram messaging app as a reward if they blew it up, according to media outlet BAZA, which has close ties to Russian law enforcement.
The average yearly salary for an adult in Russia is around £11,323.
One theory has emerged that the teenagers may have believed the act could somehow help bring home the dad of one of the boys after he was conscripted to fight in Ukraine, MailOnline reports.
The boys are now under armed guard while they are being treated in hospital.
They had also claimed destroying a mobile phone mast earlier after allegedly being paid £250.
To access the chopper, the boys sneaked through a hole in the fence, MailOnline reports citing the investigator who has launched a criminal case into the incident.
It comes as there is no end in sight for the bloody war in Ukraine.
Russian strikes have recently killed dozens of people and wounded almost 200 in central Ukraine, the country’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said.
In Kursk, Russian troops have claimed they have captured territory taken by Ukrainian forces last month in a counteroffensive in the western region.
Last week, footage emerged showing molten thermite mix being dropped on a Russian-held treeline, thought to be in eastern Donetsk region.
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