At first glance, it appears like a blob of beige dough stuffed with metal nuts, bolts and nails — a Frankenstein fruitcake.

But if you look a little closer at the police photo, this is a classic improvised explosive device, one that Ukrainian authorities say was meant to be planted at an army centre in Kyiv.

Canadian Forces faced a similar type of IED on roadsides or in the path of armoured convoys during the war in Afghanistan. Except this was found in the capital of Ukraine, and instead of the Taliban, this bomb involved a local teenager.

According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), it was one of many cases involving a civilian recruited online, who Russian agents “tasked to secretly plant the bomb under the walls of a military facility” to “remotely detonate it.” (The teen was arrested in May.)

These are Ukrainian police photos of a Russian improvised explosive device (IED) that was meant to be used at a military recruitment centre in Kyiv. (SBU)

“Russia is basically exploiting vulnerable individuals who are desperate for some sort of money to carry out these attacks,” Steven Rai, a digital research analyst at the U.S.-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue who tracks global terrorism, told CBC News. “They don't care if they're teenagers, they don't care if they are homeless people, they really don't care what the background is — they just want people to do this sort of activi