The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has unveiled a plot by Russian special services to recruit Ukrainian teenagers for anti-Semitic provocations in various regions of Ukraine. These attempts were aimed at destabilising the internal situation in Ukraine and tarnishing the country's reputation abroad. Recruitment efforts took place in Zhytomyr Region, Dnipro, Lviv, and Vinnytsya.
The recruited group consisted of students between the ages of 13 and 17 from local schools. To engage them remotely, Russian special services established a youth right-wing radical Telegram channel.
Russian special services deliberately disseminated the materials they obtained through this channel to foreign media as fabricated reports, with the intention of discrediting Ukraine.
In one case, a 15-year-old student from Radomyshl, Zhytomyr Region, was exposed. He had long been psychologically manipulated by Russian representatives on the internet. The Russians coerced the young man to write anti-Semitic messages on a memorial sign in the region.
Similar activities occurred in Dnipro, Lviv, and Vinnytsya, where local participants of the Russian-controlled Telegram channel were identified. This group comprised four students from local educational institutions. The evidence collected documented how Russian representatives influenced and coerced these individuals to vandalise Holocaust memorials.