FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
The Russian campaign to recruit young people to burn cars and other vehicles across Ukraine began about a year ago...
A hundred dollars for burning a van, a few hundred more for planting a bomb or quick cash for taking a photo of a strategic location: Russian intelligence services have found a new, cheap, and increasingly effective way to carry out sabotage operations across Europe. They are recruiting Ukrainian children and teenagers online, luring them with gamified "tasks" and small financial rewards.
Daniil Bardadim was just 17 years old when he planted an explosive device in an IKEA store in Vilnius in 2024. This week, a Lithuanian court convicted him of terrorism and other charges, sentencing him to three years and four months in prison for carrying out the attack on behalf of Russia, despite being of Ukrainian origin himself.
According to Lithuanian intelligence services, the teenager was likely tasked with targeting the Swedish furniture giant for two reasons: IKEA's withdrawal from Russia following its full invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the fact that Sweden is a strong supporter of Ukraine. But Bardadim is not the only Ukrainian teenager to have been involved in Russia's hybrid warfare in both Ukraine and Europe recently.
-Teenagers only teenagers
In April, a 19-year-old woman was arrested for making and planting an explosive device on an electric scooter donated to the Ukrainian military. She was also Ukrainian. In October, Polish police detained a 16-year-old Ukrainian refugee on suspicion of collaborating with Russia by remotely recruiting young people in his homeland to carry out attacks and murders for money.
Ukraine is aware of the phenomenon and has been keeping an eye on the problem for some time. In July, it released a video warning young Ukrainians against doing the dirty work of Russian spies, sometimes without even realizing it. Citing the Ukrainian security service (SBU), the BBC reported that of the roughly 800 Ukrainians who have been recruited by Russia over the past two years, about 240 of them are minors, some as young as 11.
-A hybrid version of Pokémon Go combat
Most of the young people were spotted by Russian "recruiters" on the Telegram messaging app.
“ Part of it is organized as a game. Where you are supposed to collect certain information in certain places or deliver things. So it is almost like the game ‘Pokémon Go’ where the player earns rewards for completing tasks ,” explained Elena Grossfield, an expert on contemporary Russian intelligence at King’s College London.
This “limitation” strategy is implemented on specific Telegram channels and TikTok accounts, where Russian agents disguise themselves with nicknames that refer to pop culture. Vlad, 17, told the BBC how he was recruited by the Russians on Telegram after posting an ad for remote work. His first mission involved collecting a hidden grenade. Although he never managed to find it, he was still paid $30.
A few days later, he was given another task: to set fire to a van belonging to a Ukrainian military recruitment center. For this more dangerous mission, he was told he would be paid $1,500. He was not paid. Instead, he received $100 in cryptocurrency and was told he would get the rest if he planted a bomb in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Rivne, about 800 kilometers from his home.
-Village informants
But young Ukrainians are not the only ones interested in these types of operations by Russian intelligence services. Experts speak of a kind of "Uberization" of Moscow's hybrid warfare efforts.
“ They have gone for quantity over quality ” in finding field operatives, Grossfield explained.
The long-term strategy of recruiting sleeper agents abroad, an art at which the KGB excelled during the Cold War, is no longer on the list of priorities. It is much more efficient to find large numbers of local soldiers on the ground, often from the criminal underworld, who are not necessarily well-trained but who are easy to replace if arrested. That is why young Ukrainians meet all the right criteria for Russia.
“ On a day-to-day level, Russia is using it on a massive scale ,” said Huseyn Aliyev, a specialist on the war in Ukraine at the University of Glasgow.
The missions they are typically tasked with include providing intelligence about the Ukrainian military and potential targets for attack: troop movements, the location of weapons factories, potential military bases, and so on.
The number of informants is growing exponentially in some areas, he said, noting that some small villages can easily contain dozens of people selling intelligence to Russia for money.
-Games and money
According to Aliyev, the Russian campaign to recruit young people to burn cars and other vehicles across Ukraine began about a year ago. They received instructions on how to make Molotov cocktails and the like and how to throw them at parked cars. Although this trend now seems to have subsided somewhat, largely thanks to numerous arrests and an SBU awareness campaign, the Russians have barely given up on exploiting young Ukrainians.
" The scheme is evolving ," he said, adding that they are now being used to take and transfer photos and to place small explosive devices.
Erik Stijnman, a specialist in military security issues related to the Russia-Ukraine war at the Netherlands Institute for International Affairs, Clingendael, said that young people are more susceptible to getting involved in this. They see it as exciting and are perhaps unable to see the whole picture and the extent of the damage they are causing to themselves and their nation.
Ukrainian authorities report that Russians have been having contact with children as young as 10. And they use two main factors to attract them: money and ego.
-Causing fear among Ukrainian refugees
Grossman said Russia has only one thing to gain by using children in this way. "There's no oversight, there's no prosecutorial component that can limit their power. Why not recruit someone who's 9 years old? He can move components from one place to another," he said.
In addition, children can be more easily influenced than adults. Russia is not limiting its recruitment of children to Ukraine, Aliyev said.
“There are so many Ukrainian refugees all over Europe. And people are eager to get that money. These child refugees also offer another valuable advantage: You can travel anywhere in the European Union with a Ukrainian passport ,” he said.
Grossfield added that they also serve as gateways for more recruits.
"Remember that many people, especially teenagers, need money. And they would do many things for money, so teenagers recruit their friends as well ," he added.
That's exactly what the Ukrainian teenager detained in Poland is suspected of doing. While these young men may not be trusted with the most sensitive missions, their operations can cause a lot of damage, like the explosion at the IKEA store in Lithuania.
But perhaps even more damaging is the psychological impact of these sabotage operations. For with every piece of news suggesting that a Ukrainian has collaborated with Russia, there is a risk that Western public opinion will start to swing against Ukraine. This is perhaps the purpose of these operations, that they send a strong signal that Ukrainians are turning against Europe, so why should we support them? / Adapted from “Pamphlet” by “France24”
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