Russian agents target Ukrainian teens as 'easy victims' for recruitment into terror schemes

Russian intelligence agencies use a wide range of strategies to recruit Ukrainian teenagers for sabotage and terrorist acts inside the country, Olena Rozvadovska, a child rights specialist and co-founder and chair of the Voices of Children charity, told NV in an interview.

“I think their [Russian] recruitment network is so large and powerful that there isn’t a single algorithm they follow,” the expert said.

Rozvadovska said teenagers are especially vulnerable to manipulation. “It has always been this way,” she emphasized. “At that age, experience is lacking, and there’s no understanding of responsibility for one’s actions.”

Russian agents often target children in Telegram groups that promise quick money. There have also been cases where hackers from the aggressor country hack personal accounts and blackmail teenagers with intimate photos from their chats.

“They are told, ‘We will send your photo to the whole school, everyone will laugh at you,’” the rights activist explained. “And the child goes and carries out the task because they feel completely trapped.”

Rozvadovska stressed that minors usually cannot assess the consequences of their actions. “For them, publishing such photos seems like a real tragedy,” she said. “It’s literally the end of the world, so it’s easier to comply and do something.”

Another recruitment tactic is for the recruiter to become a so-called friend to the child, Rozvadovska added. This is particularly effective for minors who lack parents or close supporters. “A person appears who listens and understands them,” she explained. “Later, that person starts saying, ‘Let’s cooperate,’ and the child is already open to them. The connection is established, making it hard to think critically.”

Russia has spent years building its presence across social media, which allows it to target Ukrainian children more easily. All of these recruitment scenarios happen online.

“No one goes out on the streets to recruit children in person,” Rozvadovska concluded. “This isn’t the 1990s, when kids hung out near a basement, someone approached, and recruited them for something the next day. Now children are only on social media. And we know how aggressively Russia is expanding its presence there. This is a long-established system for catching and keeping children on the hook.”