“There were three grenades in the bag.” This is how Russians recruit children for attacks. The new face of terrorism in Ukraine [ŚLEDZTWO]

Ashley Davis7 days ago

0 36 7 minutes read

Virtually every week there are reports of terrorist attacks in Ukraine, organized by local residents who were hired for this task by Russian overseers. The scope of sabotage activities is very diverse – from contract killings to arson. However, the action plan is always similar.

Recruiters attract, among others, teenagers on social media. They offer the prospect of easy money or blackmail you. The subsequent stages of the operation are entrusted to various contractors. The Russian organizers of the event have no regard for the lives of people who accept orders.

Novaya Gazeta's special correspondent Dmitry Durnev talked to people recruited by the Russians and to employees of the Ukrainian security services who investigate crimes. The materials he collected show how entire recruitment networks and groups carrying out sabotage and terrorist attacks operate on the territory of Ukraine. The names of the characters used in the text have been changed. Below we describe the case of Sergei, nicknamed “Little” – there are at least hundreds like him in Ukraine.

In September 2024, Sergei, a boy from a Ukrainian village near the capital, started studying at a technical school. In Kiev he lived in a student dormitory. His neighbor was Artem, a young man from the same village. Artyom knew how to make a lot of money quickly and easily. He was ready to share these methods with his new colleague.

Sergei, a tall boy with a round face, speaks slowly, thoughtfully, as if considering each sentence. As the younger son, he was always called “Little” in the family.

For the first time, Artyom took Sergei “to work” in December 2024. You had to paint graffiti on the wall with the website address, you could earn 1,000 hryvnias (less than PLN 90) per night. Customers paid 50 hryvnias (over PLN 4) for one painted address. Sergei himself, as he claims, did not visit these websites and spent the money he earned “on food and cinema.”

The article continues below the video

He had a dream: a new iPhone. Used, it cost PLN 15,000. hryvnias (approx. PLN 1,300). Sergei didn't know that this was the phone his sister was going to give him for his birthday this summer, so he decided to save up for the phone himself. When the technical school first closed for the winter break and then switched to distance learning, the boy started working almost every day in a large warehouse – for 500-600 hryvnias (approx. PLN 40-50) a day. He didn't answer Artyom's calls. He was constantly busy.

And then he saw on Instagram that Artyom had a new iPhone. He bought it with the money he earned during another “job”. Artem offered him the same job – with a salary of as much as PLN 80,000. hryvnia (less than PLN 7,000). And then the Little One was tempted.

The task turned out to be difficult, but 17-year-old Sergei did not understand it immediately. This dawned on him gradually, as he became more and more involved in carrying out the task entrusted to him.

First, he was rented an apartment in Kiev on a daily basis. From there, he was sent by taxi to the given coordinates to dig out the hiding place with the package. There were grenades inside.

“There were three smooth green grenades in the bag, and the detonators were separate, in a package,” says Sergei. “The fourth grenade was different: it looked like plastic, and the fuze was also plastic.”

Sergei was supposed to unpack the grenades based on the video instructions Artyom sent him. He also paid for Maly's taxi, provided him with food and rented another apartment for a few days from the same owner in Kiev so that Sergei could finish his work.

“Our task is to unscrew the detonator,” a man in a black military jacket said in the video (obtained by Novaya Gazeta journalists). His face is blurred in the video. The fingers resemble those of sappers; large, with calluses, blisters and old scars.

The little one made a homemade explosive device (SVU). For this purpose, a ring is removed from the grenade and the fuse is attached with a string; a mobile phone and an electric lighter are connected to this structure. It is assumed that after the connection, the telephone will work, a spark will appear, the match will light, and the kapron string will quickly burn – and without the retarder, the grenade will immediately explode. Sergei received the phones sent to him, but for some reason they did not have SIM cards – he went to one of the ATB stores to get them. In Ukraine, even during the war, SIM cards are sold without ID.

Every phone operating in Ukraine receives various SMS notifications – about Russian attacks, from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as advertisements. Each such text message could theoretically cause a spark and set off an ignition in the saboteur's backpack, in a rented apartment – anywhere. Those who order sabotage do not think about the fate of the contractors. They take into account their death at every stage of the process.

In the next stage of the “task”, Sergei was to assemble an explosive device from scattered parts and then either hand it to someone or detonate it. The little one was going to the supermarket to buy more parts to construct a bomb, but all he could think about was giving up the task entrusted to him.

He wandered around the supermarket for a long time, then put on his headphones and returned to the apartment he had rented for him – and, apparently lost in thought, he missed the right turn to go home. That's what saved him.

The explosive charge was already in the hands of officers of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). They knew what was in the cargo, but they didn't know who it was intended for. After identifying Sergei, they found the address of the apartment where he was staying and followed him as he bought fishing line. They continued to observe when Little went to the store to buy SIM cards. The purchase of the SIM cards meant that the bomb kit was completed.

A few minutes after returning to the apartment, the boy was able to assemble a working bomb. When he went in the wrong direction on his way back, the officers decided: they had to stop him. They said that perhaps the would-be attacker got scared and decided to run away.

— The explosive charge could have exploded during assembly – this happens often – explains a Ukrainian officer, operational codename “Andrei”, who took part in the operation to detain Mały. “He could have suddenly been clever and escaped through the roof. There could have been a girl in his apartment, for example, and she could have walked into the city next to us with a backpack containing a bomb – anything could have happened! So we decided to arrest him.”

Thus, Sergei, nicknamed “Little”, was only charged with illegal trade in explosives. If the SBU had taken a risk and detained him after he had placed the bomb, he would have faced a completely different charge – a failed terrorist act. The officers would receive rewards, Little would receive a long punishment. However, the risk that the grenades would explode and kill people turned out to be too high. The services decided to intervene.

Little spent several days in custody, then was released on bail and placed under house arrest at night. His cooperation with the Ukrainian services was also taken into account. Thanks to this, they managed to dismantle the entire network of recruited teenagers. If everything goes according to plan, Sergei may receive a suspended sentence. He currently lives under the care of his older sister Oksana.

There are at least hundreds like Oksana and Sergei throughout Ukraine. Russian special services, using social networks, actively recruit Ukrainian teenagers (and others) for various sabotage activities, promising them easy work and good remuneration. Some, like Sergei, are stopped before they obey. Others, like the perpetrator of the attack in Lviv, carry out the tasks entrusted to them.

Many possibilities for everyone

“Are you looking for a job with a flexible schedule and decent remuneration? We offer: arson orders for buildings throughout Ukraine. High remuneration: from USD 1,000 to USD 5,000 per project (from approximately PLN 3.7 thousand to approximately PLN 18.5 thousand). Payments: BTC/LTC [kryptowaluty Bitcoin oraz Litecoin] /USDT, Visa/MasterCard. Confidentiality: Your data is completely safe. Professional training: detailed videos and photos. Flexible schedule: work at a time that suits you. 24/7 support: our people are always ready to contact you,” reads one of the announcements posted on the Telegram platform.

Telegram is a communication application popular in Ukraine and Russia (illustrative photo)Matt Cardy/Getty Images/Contributor/Getty Images

Clients operating on Telegram use stolen data of sensitive social groups. In the first months of the invasion, they simply sent text messages. Tasks are typically broken down into small steps, each of which is assigned to different contractors. This increases the likelihood of making a mistake.

— People who work for the Russians are not always intelligent, not always educated, not always qualified, says an SBU employee from Kiev, Viktor (name changed). “They divide [Rosjanie] processes into smaller parts and for money use people for particular tasks: excavation [paczki]handover [materiałów]buy and send [tychże]collecting parts of the bomb, placing it under the car. At every stage something breaks, people are careless, and the internet can be bad.”

Reports of successful sabotages are published on Telegram channels that imitate “Ukrainian guerrilla movements.” Some of them have tens of thousands of subscribers – most of them are probably supporters of the war with Russian passports, but such groups can help holders of Ukrainian passports feel that they are not alone.

“Operation Energy Front is gaining momentum! A new precision attack on enemy infrastructure – relay cabinets controlling train traffic have been disabled along the entire railway line,” reports one of such channels.

It is impossible to say how many acts of terrorism and sabotage take place in Ukraine – from car arson to blowing up patrols during interventions – because there are no public statistics. However, there are dozens of reports from the SBU and the Ukrainian police about the detection of entire networks of saboteurs and sentences – up to life imprisonment – for traitors to the homeland recruited on Telegram. Sometimes they are teenagers who just wanted to make easy money.

Ashley Davis7 days ago

0 36 7 minutes read