A minor resident of Odesa almost became a terrorist

A girl from Odesa, who was 17 years old last year, almost became involved in a terrorist act planned by the Russian special services in one of the city's territorial centers for recruitment and social support.

The teenagers found out the story and told it to the journalists of Slidstvo.Info.

The girl said that in March 2025, she met a guy on social media who called himself Heorhii and had the nickname "John Rambo" on Telegram. They started chatting and eventually agreed on a date, which took place in Victory Park. After the date, the guy asked the girl if she liked it and if she got home, and she liked the attention.

The girl wanted to meet again, but a month passed, and the guy was limited to correspondence on social media, and eventually agreed to a second date, but on the condition that the girl help him. The help consisted of picking up his backpack.

"I agreed. He said that the backpack contained paint cans. He sent me the geo-position where to pick up the backpack and explained that he was late for training, so he threw the backpack and ran," the teenager told the journalist.

The girl was surprised by the request, but she wanted to see the guy she really liked, so she agreed. The backpack was dirty and heavy and was lying right under a tree, but the girl finally decided to take it and called a taxi. On the way, she stopped at a cafe to recharge her phone and Heorhiy asked her to turn on her camera. He made sure she took her backpack. Then he asked her to go to the restroom with the backpack because he could not hear her well because of the people and music. He asked to see the backpack again.

"He asked if I saw the 'ropes', and I said: "Yes, I see them." He asked: "Can you twist them? There's just paint in the cans so they don't fall apart." It sounds absurd now, but I really believed him at the time. I twisted them somehow wrong, I didn't know how. I mean, I didn't twist them completely. I twisted it like a pigtail and that was it," the girl said.

Next, Heorhiy, who called himself "John Rambo" in the messenger, directed her to the SEC on Kanatna Street. There, he said, his friend was supposed to come out and pick up the backpack. The couple was on the phone. "John Rambo" asked to turn on the camera. The girl saw a man near the SEC and asked her interlocutor if he was the friend to whom she was supposed to give the backpack. Instead, "John Rambo" frantically ordered the girl not to give anything to this man and to try to go inside the building, but only when the man who had frightened him left.

The girl waited for a while, but then decided that she was attracting too much attention with her dirty backpack and went behind the building, and then got tired of it. She threw the backpack near the trash can and decided to tell her interlocutor to do it himself. However, when she stepped away from the backpack, she was detained.

It turned out that the man who had scared "John Rambo" was an employee of the special department of the Security Service of Ukraine. The guy contacted the SBU and said that he had been offered to assemble an improvised explosive device. The SBU investigators decided to use this information and asked the applicant to continue the correspondence. That's how they found out where to leave the explosive. Instead of a real device, they put a dummy. According to the operatives, they were surprised when the fragile young girl came and did not know that she acted unconsciously. The law enforcement officers followed the girl and when they saw her without a backpack, they decided that she had planted the explosives where she had planned.

Law enforcement officers checked all the correspondence and interrogated her. They were convinced that the Russian special services had blindly used the minor, probably planning to blow her up when she entered the right office in the SEC building. Therefore, at the request of prosecutors, the girl was not prosecuted.

According to law enforcement officers, the guy who came to meet the heroine of the investigation was acting on the instructions of Russian special services, although he might not have known the specific goal. The operatives assumed that he had agreed to work for money and kept in touch with the special services. It was never possible to find Heorhiy because the meeting took place long before the special operation with the backpack.

Кирило Бойко