Name: Russia grooms Ukrainian teens as spies and saboteurs | DW News
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Ukraine isn't just facing dangers from Russia on its borders.

It's also dealing with threats from within.

Authorities say they've noticed an alarming trend.

A growing number of teenagers being recruited online by Russia to carry out acts of sabotage.

TW special correspondent Mariel Muller met a teen who shared his story.

This Ukrainian made video depicts classic spy activities paired with a warning, we will find you by Ukraine's intelligence agency, the sbu.

Ukrainian teenagers and children as young as 12 are carrying out such acts of sabotage and espionage for Russia.

Prosecutors say they are being recruited and instructed by Russian FSB agents, often through encrypted messaging apps.

We meet him at a police station in Kharkiv, his lawyer by his side.

I go to school and I hang out with my friends at home.

Maxim's father is a carpenter with health problems.

Last December, he started looking for work together with a friend on Telegram, we looked through different channels where people post jobs.

In Kharkiv, we found a job putting up posters.

He asked my age, name, city and if I had experience.

Maxim and his friend were told to hang posters advertising driver jobs in public squares.

They earned 400 rivner, just over €8, paid through a banking app.

For €20, we had to spray paint a wall near the railway, writing that our president is a scumbag and other insults.

Maxim says he was skeptical about the job, but

he followed the order and sent a picture to Vladimir as proof.

Straight after he painted over it, he says.

I was sent coordinates where I was supposed to go and take pictures.

When I arrived, I realized it was a power plant.

The next day, he told me to set fire to a transformer box near the railway.

Again, he refused, but Vladimir threatened him.

Maxim was starting to fear for his life and that of his father.

He sent me my dad's phone number and said, if you don't do it, he'll feel bad.

He promised 10,000 hryvnias, a little over €200.

So Maxim set the transformer box on fire and sent a short video to Vladimir, fearing it might cause a train to derail.

Not long after he was caught by Ukrainian police.

Alexander Shevchenko is leading the investigation into Maxim's case and 40 similar ones involving minors.

The central communications station was set on fire.

Relay cabinets and military vehicles also set on fire.

I'd say the enemy is exploiting the psychological vulnerability of teenagers quite effectively, tapping into their thirst for adventure, youthful idealism, and

the desire to gain recognition among their peers.

Miners from unstable homes are most at risk.

He says their recruitment begins in telegram groups, then moves to private chats, making it hard to trace.

After recruits have completed a few harmless tasks, they received their real assignment.

The teenagers were given instructions to go to a hardware store and buy the necessary components for an explosive device.

They were instructed on what to buy, how to mix it in what proportions, and so on.

A police officer takes us to the site of an attack.

Last December, a 15 year old detonated a homemade explosive device near Akharkiv police station.

The blast caused only minor damage and no one was injured, but it could have turned out differently.

In another incident, a child died when detonating a device.

Police say law enforcement is working closely with schools and child services to warn minors, but

Parents should pay more attention to the development of their children, have more preventative conversations with them, and

Maxim claims he didn't realize he was being used by Russians because Vladimir messaged him in Ukrainian and that he was too scared to walk away.

Maxime says he's learned his lesson, but likely too late.

The teenager has been charged with sabotage and is facing up to a decade behind bars.

And I'm joined here in the studio by our correspondent Mariel Muller, who filed that report for us.

Are these young people aware that they're working for Russian intelligence?

Or do they largely think they're just doing some odd jobs for some decent money?

So most of them don't grasp the bigger picture.

They actually think they're doing some small side jobs to earn quick, easy money.

It's only later when they realize, oh, this is actually a bigger criminal, dangerous endeavor.

And then often it's already too late at that point, because at that point they're already being blackmailed into continuing these tasks.

They're being blackmailed with the tasks that they've already performed, which might have been criminal, or they're also blackmailed with photos that have been hacked from their phones.

Or in Maxime's case, he was directly threatened.

And they told him, look, we're going to hurt your dad or we're going to hurt you as well.

And that's this cycle where they feel like they cannot escape.

You mentioned in your report that some of these sabotage acts can actually turn deadly.

I mean, we saw it starts with easy stuff and then it builds up.

Can you tell us a little bit more about that aspect of it?

So there was one incident where a teenager, in which one teenager died or was killed.

There were several other incidents in which teenagers were seriously injured while carrying out these acts.

And in this case of a 17 year old and a 15 year old teenager, they were promised US$1,700 if they would plant two bombs near a train station.

So they followed the online instruction of how to build a homemade explosive device by these Russian handlers.

And they built two bombs out of thermos flasks and metal nuts.

And when they arrived at the specific location, they were given the coordinates, they went to this train station and they planted the bomb.

And then the Russian handlers actually remotely detonated these bombs.

And that's how the 17 year old was killed tragically.

And the 15 year old lost both his legs and yeah, basically they were turned into suicide bombers without them knowing.

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Russia grooms Ukrainian teens as spies and saboteurs | DW News

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