Russia is using Telegram chats linked to drug trafficking to recruit Ukrainian children to engage in subversive activities against the state. First, they lure them with money, then they move on to blackmail and physical violence.
Russia is using Telegram chats linked to drug trafficking to recruit Ukrainian children to engage in subversive activities against the state. First, they lure them with money, then they move on to blackmail and physical violence.
This was reported by Timofey Mylovanov on his Facebook page with a link to "Suspilne". According to him, this happens in two stages. First, teenagers are paid small amounts for simple tasks, for example, taking a photo of a military unit, putting up leaflets. Then they are assigned more risky tasks: arson, beatings or even making explosives. After each completed task, teenagers must send a photo, video or geotag to confirm participation.
"First they offer money and small tasks. Then they start intimidating, threatening, blackmailing, and physical violence," Mylovanov wrote.
The video released in the investigation shows children being made to kneel, kicked, and forced to apologize to the chat room "admins."
Those who refuse to carry out the task are threatened with weapons and the publication of a "drain" of compromising material to the SBU. Others are offered $1,000 for participating in beatings. Some tasks are paid even more — $10,000–20,000, if it involves blowing up or attacking employees of the CCC or law enforcement officers.
Mylovanov noted that in such chats there is never a direct mention of the FSB, but the rhetoric is unambiguous: "first we put our own people in the stall, then everyone else."
The youngest of those recruited is 11 years old. Teenagers fall into the trap not because of ideology, but for money. Some want to buy new clothes, some want to help their parents.
According to journalists, such Telegram channels masquerade as “joking” or “patriotic” communities, but a strict hierarchy operates inside. Newcomers are tested “for loyalty” by completing small tasks, and then dragged deeper, forcing them to carry out criminal orders under the threat of physical punishment. Violence, compromising material, and promises of money are the main tools of manipulation.
We will remind you that we also published a material about how in Ivano-Franivsk the SBU exposed the owner of an underground IT company who worked remotely for the Russian occupation administration in the Kherson region.
