Moscow uses Telegram to turn Ukrainian youths into unwitting attackers

Young Ukrainians lured with job offers via Telegram and turned into unwitting tools of sabotage by Russian intelligence services

In the hidden war being fought far from the front lines, Moscow has opened a new and disturbing chapter: the recruitment via Telegram of unwitting young Ukrainians turned into tools of sabotage. This was revealed by an investigation by The Guardian, according to which the Russian intelligence service FSB has intensified its covert operations in Ukrainian territory, exploiting teenagers and young people in vulnerable situations.

The case of Oleh, a 19-year-old unemployed man from eastern Ukraine, is emblematic. Attracted by a Telegram channel offering “simple, well-paid jobs”, he agreed to go to Rivne to spray paint a police station in exchange for a thousand dollars. When he opened the backpack he had been given, he discovered a ready-to-use homemade bomb with a mobile phone connected for remote detonation. Only the intervention of the police, alerted by the young man himself, and the intervention of the SBU internal intelligence service prevented a massacre.

According to SBU spokesman Artem Dekhtiarenko, the Russian strategy took an even more dangerous turn in the spring of 2024. Sabotage actions, initially limited to arson, have escalated to bombings. Recruiters operate under pseudonyms, pretending to be Ukrainians opposed to the war, and offer compensation in cryptocurrency for seemingly harmless actions: photographing buildings, posting flyers, mapping routes. But once hooked, the young people are pushed towards increasingly serious activities, under threat or psychological manipulation.

In 2024 alone, according to official data, the SBU arrested over 700 people for sabotage and terrorism. Among them were dozens of teenagers, some of whom were very young: even an 11-year-old was involved. “In some cases,” Dekhtiarenko reports, ‘the Russians blow up the young people themselves, using them as unwitting detonators. It has become a frequent practice.”

The attempted attack by Oleh and his friend Serhiy comes just days after a similar incident in Rivne, where a 21-year-old man was killed and eight soldiers were injured. Thanks to advanced electronic countermeasures, Ukrainian intelligence agents managed to neutralise the explosives remotely, preventing another massacre.

A silent escalation, aimed at destabilising Ukraine by striking from within, while fuelling Kremlin propaganda.

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