Russian Special Services Recruit Ukrainian Children for Sabotage in Kherson

During the war, Russian special services are trying to use Ukrainian children for their criminal purposes. They recruit minors to spread pro-Russian propaganda, adjust fire, or gather intelligence.

According to the Kherson regional police, children are becoming a tool in the hands of Russian war criminals, which puts minors in danger and threatens them with criminal liability.

"In order to prevent this phenomenon, the juvenile prevention officers of the Kherson police conduct information work among school students," the department added.

Online, law enforcement officers explain to children what methods the enemy uses to recruit. Saboteurs can write to minors on social media, offering money or gifts for filming checkpoints, military equipment or setting cars on fire. They ask them to deliver an "ordinary package" or leave it in a certain place. Juveniles emphasize that such actions are punishable by law.

"Collaboration with the enemy or assistance to saboteurs is a criminal offense, even for minors," the police said.

According to Vitaliy Saifutdinov, head of the Juvenile Prevention Department of the Kherson regional police, the main task of the police is not to punish but to prevent children from being involved in criminal activities.

"We teach schoolchildren information hygiene, urge them to be careful, not to engage in suspicious correspondence, not to pass on any data to strangers, teach them to recognize threats and maintain their own safety, and to immediately report all suspicious calls for cooperation to their parents and the police," he said.

Earlier, the SBU repeatedly detained teenagers involved in sabotage acts in the partially occupied Mykolaiv region. These included vandalism and numerous arsons of both infrastructure and military vehicles. In November 2024, the SBU and the National Police detained a suspect while he was buying chemicals and elements to create another explosive. The operation also detained two of his accomplices, 15-20-year-old Odesa residents, who had set fire to Ukrposhta offices in Odesa and Mykolaiv.

Also, in one of the villages of Mykolaiv region, two 16-year-old teenagers set fire to a police car, following an order from an anonymous curator via messenger. After completing the task, contact with the courier was lost. And in December 2024, police in Mykolaiv region found a group of teenagers who set fire to transformer substations and received rewards on e-wallets for their activities. The court also found one of the local teenagers guilty of sabotage. In May 2023, he received an offer via Telegram to carry out sabotage actions for a fee, including $300 for inscriptions on buildings, $500 for setting fire to a forest, and $1,000 for setting fire to railway equipment.

Олеся Ланцман