Serbian police said in a statement Monday that the group was detained over incidents in France and Germany that took place between April and September. A suspected organizer, who Serbian police said acted on instructions from an unidentified foreign security agency, remains at large.

French authorities did not name any country but the incident bore possible hallmarks of previous suspected Russian-linked acts of attempted destabilization that have targeted France and other allies of Ukraine.

Mapping by The Associated Press of alleged disruption efforts by Russia and its proxies has documented dozens of attacks and other incidents across Europe, with France and Germany — another key ally of Ukraine — among the principal targets.

The Serbian police said the suspects were detained in Belgrade and another town. The terse statement said the alleged instructor, who was not named, had organized and trained the group to help incite hatred, discrimination and violence in both Germany and France.

Serbia’s autocratic President Aleksandar Vucic has maintained close relations with Russia while Serbia remains the only country in Europe that has not imposed sanctions on Moscow over the war in Ukraine, even as Belgrade formally seeks European Union membership.

Just days ago, Serbia arrested two suspects over alleged training of more than 100 foreign nationals to incite riots during a key election in Moldova last weekend, which was won by the country’s pro-Western government.

In May, a Paris Holocaust memorial, three synagogues and a restaurant were daubed with green paint, French media reported.

The attack was reminiscent of an earlier act of vandalism in May 2024, when a Paris memorial honoring people who distinguished themselves by helping to rescue Jews in France during the country’s Nazi occupation in World War II was defaced with painted blood-red hands. A French intelligence report said the Russian intelligence agency FSB ordered that attack.