Ukraine’s top law enforcement official has revealed that Russian agents are targeting teenage Ukrainian girls for recruitment in deadly plots against their own country’s military forces.
National police chief Ivan Vyhivskyi disclosed in a Wednesday interview with Ukrainian outlet Cenzor.NET that authorities have documented six contract murder cases this year orchestrated through the Telegram messaging platform, with one attack successfully thwarted.
“We are talking about planned murders organised by the special services of the aggressor state and carried out by Ukrainian citizens,” he said.
Russia’s FSB security service was not immediately available for comment. Russian security services accuse Kyiv of recruiting Russians for bombings in Russia, and Ukrainian military intelligence has claimed responsibility for assassinating several senior Russian officers since Moscow’s 2022 invasion.
According to Vyhivskyi, Russian operatives target young women through messaging applications, offering them quick financial rewards while directing their activities from afar.
The recruits receive instructions to locate Ukrainian service members on dating platforms and are given funds by their controllers to secure apartments for meetings, Vyhivskyi explained.
The handlers also provide information about where to acquire methadone, a synthetic opioid painkiller that becomes deadly in large quantities, for spiking beverages, he added.
Ukrainian security officials report that more than 1,100 Ukrainian citizens have faced charges for arson, terrorism or sabotage against their homeland during the ongoing conflict.
Authorities apprehended a 17-year-old female suspect in the western Zhytomyr region last week after a serviceman was poisoned, with investigators saying she had been in contact through Telegram with someone believed to be a Russian intelligence operative.
The teenager had received a package containing a crystalline material that investigators believe was methadone, according to police.
