Young Ukrainians, mostly teenagers, are being recruited by Russians and often end up unwittingly becoming suicide bombers to hit targets in Ukraine, according to a recent report.
The Ukrainians are being recruited through odd jobs postings on Telegram as part of Russia's shadow war, with the goal of hitting military targets, police stations, post offices, and more, reports The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, quoting The Guardian.
One person, a 19-year-old, said he had been offered $1,000 to video himself vandalizing a western Ukrainian police station.
He said he collected a rucksack at an exchange point, thinking he was being given a can of spray paint, but when he opened the bag, he found a bomb with a cell phone attached to it to be used as a remote detonator.
Ukraine's SBU security agency said the sabotage campaign began in the spring of 2024, and so far, more than a dozen people have been killed or injured. The attacks are mainly hitting areas in western Ukraine, beyond the war's frontlines.
Early in the campaign, "curators" lured teens in through a mix of enticement and blackmail to carry out arson attacks on military and civilian infrastructure targets, but now the attacks include bombings mirroring terror group attacks.
Nearly 700 people have been arrested since early 2024 on charges of terrorism, arson, or sabotage, the SBU reports.
SBU spokesperson Artem Dekhtiarenko said that in some cases, the recruits don't only plant bombs but end up acting as suicide bombers.
"Russians blow up their own agents," he said. "This is becoming common practice."
According to SBU officers, the Russian agents start with easy requests to hook in recruits, but then move on to more difficult tasks.
"Sometimes they use threats, sometimes they are friendly and encouraging. It depends on who is curating the agent; they use different psychological manipulations on different people," Dekhtiarenko said. "After people perform the first task, they are on the hook."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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