A 14-year-old girl in the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil was recruited by Russian special services and blackmailed with explicit photos into preparing a terrorist attack, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reported.
According to the SBU, the girl was detained before carrying out the attack.
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“The occupiers recruited her to plant explosives at the local district police department,” the agency stated on Telegram.
Russian intelligence contacted the teenager after she searched for part-time work on Telegram. Hackers then remotely accessed her phone and used explicit images to pressure her into cooperating, the SBU said.
Under Russian instructions, she built a homemade bomb, hid it in a backpack, and placed it under a car near the police building. Russian operatives planned to detonate it remotely, killing both the girl and civilians nearby, the SBU said.
Photo: a backpack with the homemade explosive device/ the SBU press service
However, SBU and National Police officers in Ternopil intercepted the plan, locating and neutralizing the explosive in time, as per the report.
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Photo: a backpack with the homemade explosive device/ the SBU press service
The girl has been charged with attempting a terrorist act under Ukraine’s criminal code and is under house arrest. If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison and property confiscation.
The SBU has warned of a new Russian intelligence tactic: using unsuspecting operatives and then eliminating them to erase evidence.
“If you or your friends are asked to ‘simply deliver a package’ to a territorial recruitment center, police station, or other administrative building, know that they are trying to kill you,” the SBU stated.
In early March, two explosions in the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk were unwitting suicide attacks carried out by Ukrainian teenagers recruited by Russian intelligence, as per the SBU.
The two boys, aged 15 and 17, found a job offer on Telegram and unknowingly became operatives. They received instructions and funds to rent an apartment and build explosives disguised as thermoses. Promised $1,700, they were tasked with placing the bombs at designated sites.
On March 11, as they transported the devices, Russian handlers remotely detonated them via GPS. The 17-year-old died instantly, while the 15-year-old was critically injured. Two bystanders were also wounded. Shortly after, a blast occurred in their rented apartment.
The surviving teen faces terrorism-related charges, and authorities are investigating two 15-year-old girls linked to the plot.
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