Zhytomyr, Ukraine. Ukraine’s police chief has accused Russia of recruiting teenage Ukrainian girls to kill Ukrainian military personnel, after police detained a 17-year-old suspected of murdering a serviceman on the instructions of a Russian operative.
In an interview published on Wednesday by Ukrainian media outlet Cenzor.NET, national police chief Ivan Vyhivskyi said there had been six cases this year of contract killings arranged through the Telegram messaging app, including one that was prevented.
Police allegations
“We are talking about planned murders organised by the special services of the aggressor state and carried out by Ukrainian citizens,” Vyhivskyi said.
Police detained the 17-year-old woman in the western region of Zhytomyr last week following the poisoning of a serviceman. Police said she had been communicating via Telegram with a man who was likely an agent of Russian security services.
Recruitment methods
Vyhivskyi said Russian recruiters found young women through messaging platforms, promising them easy money and coordinating their actions remotely.
He said the women were instructed to search for Ukrainian military personnel on dating websites and were sent money by their handlers to rent apartments for meetings.
Vyhivskyi said they were also told where they could obtain methadone, a synthetic opioid used as a painkiller that can be lethal in high doses, to lace drinks.
Response from Telegram and wider context
Devon Spurgeon, a Telegram spokesperson, said in an emailed comment that attempts to recruit people for sabotage on Telegram were routinely detected and removed.
“Telegram is a platform for peaceful communication and privacy, not war,” Spurgeon said.
Russia’s FSB security service was not immediately available for comment.
Russian security services have accused Kyiv of recruiting Russians for bombings in Russia, while Ukrainian military intelligence has claimed responsibility for assassinating several senior Russian officers since Moscow’s 2022 invasion.
Security service data
Ukraine’s security service has said that more than 1,100 Ukrainians have been accused during the war of committing arson, terrorism or sabotage in betrayal of their country.