Ukrainian children as young as 15 are being tricked into working for Russian intelligence under the guise of “quest games,” according to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the country’s National Police.
The authorities claimed Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) had enlisted two groups of children aged 15 and 16 to perform reconnaissance and sabotage, including arson.
In one ‘game,’ they were apparently sent geolocation information from the FSB, and were told to take a video and photo of the location along with a description of the surrounding area, in order to complete the task.
This information was then sent back to an FSB supervisor via an anonymous chat room and used later to carry out more accurate air strikes on Kharkiv.
Read more on Russian threats: Google Report Reveals Russia’s Elaborate Cyber Strategy in Ukraine
Separately, the SBU discovered a ‘game’ in which children were told to set fire to electricity transformers.
The SBU said it has in custody the “organizer” of one of the groups. If found guilty of sabotage committed under martial law (Part 2 of Article 113 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), they face life in prison.
A separate “liaison officer” for the FSB – a police officer from the southern Russian city of Krasnodar – has reportedly been identified and charged in absentia under the same law.
Children in both groups were apprehended and detained by SBU officers while they were photographing Ukrainian air defense installations.
This unconventional intelligence-gathering tactic highlights the hybrid nature of the Russian threat to Ukraine. Back in January, it emerged that Russian intelligence officers hacked domestic surveillance camera in Kyiv to help it guide missile strikes.
The SBU claimed it had blocked around 10,000 connected cameras that could be used to gather intelligence on Ukraine’s defense operations since February 2022.
While some Ukrainians have unwittingly helped the enemy, others are more obviously collaborators. Also in January 2024, an IT specialist recruited via Telegram was arrested after providing information on military infrastructure to the FSB.
Thanks to the information supplied by the Kharkiv resident, Russian missiles were able to target a local hospital, according to the SBU.