The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU or SBU) has exposed a new espionage campaign, suspected of being part of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), which involved the recruitment of Ukrainian minors for criminal activities under the guise of “quest games”.
Law enforcement officers said that they detained two FSB agent groups after a special operation in Kharkiv. These groups, according to the agency, consisted exclusively of 15- and 16-year-old children.
“Minors performed hostile tasks of conducting reconnaissance, adjusting strikes and arson,” the SBU reports. said in a statement released Friday. “To mask the subversive activities, both enemy cells operated separately from each other.”
According to the rules of the quest game established by the FSB, the children were given geographical coordinates, after which they were asked to get to the place, take a photo and video of the objects, and also give a general description of the surroundings.
The results of these intelligence missions were later passed on to Russian intelligence services through anonymous chats. The SBU said that information gathered as a result of these actions was used to launch airstrikes on Kharkiv.
The main security agency of Ukraine also reported that it had detained “all members of enemy groups” who were found while photographing the country’s air defense facilities. One of the organizers was taken into custody, he faces life imprisonment.
A police officer from the Krasnodar region of Russia is also accused of involvement in these actions. He was charged in absentia under Part 2 of Article 113 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which pertains to subversive actions committed under martial law.
The development comes from the Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) warned of a new series of cyberattacks that he said targeted defense companies in the country, as well as its security and defense forces. The intrusions were attributed to a Russian-linked actor under the number UAC-0185.
