Politics
How Russia and Ukraine Use Teenagers for Sabotage Operations
October 4, 2024
- Nikolay MitrokhinАcademic Researcher, Research Center for East European Studies at the University of Bremen (Germany)
Political scientist Nikolay Mitrokhin details how, in violation of national and international legislation on the protection of children’s rights, the Russian and Ukrainian security services are increasingly using teenagers to carry out small-scale sabotage behind enemy lines, promising them easy money.
The original text in Russian was published in Republic. A slightly amended version is being reprinted here with their permission.
In Russia and Ukraine, the number of acts of sabotage, often involving minors, is growing rapidly. For a promised reward from foreign security services, railway facilities, military enlistment offices, army vehicles and even helicopters are being torched.
An arson epidemic in Ukraine and Russia
On the night of September 11, at the airport in Noyabrsk, Yamalia (Russia), a helicopter was destroyed after a fire. Thirteen-year-old Timur and 14-year-old Alexander, having made their way into a guarded area through a hole in the fence, had doused the Mi-8 with a flammable liquid and set it on fire with cigarettes and then run away.
They were detained an hour later when they called an ambulance because of burns they had sustained in the fire. A stranger had put them up to it, having contacted them on social media and promised RUB 5 million. Ironically, the father of one of the boys is fighting in Ukraine.
On September 13, four young men aged 20 to 21 were arrested for setting fire to relay cabinets near the Khrapunovo railway station in Moscow Region. One of them told the police during questioning that he had received an offer via messenger to commit arson and that they had received RUB 34,000 from their handler on the same day after sending video confirmation of their work. Now, the young men are defendants in a terrorism case, facing the prospect of 20 years in prison.
On September 21, in Omsk, two 16-year-olds, having believed a stranger’s promise of $20,000, set fire to another Mi-8 helicopter. FSB special forces came for them a day later. They too are being prosecuted as terrorists.
On September 26, it was reported that three teenagers had been detained for arson on a railway in Irkutsk Region. They are suspected of torching an electricity meter on September 17 between the Irkutsk-Sortirovochny and Akademichesky railway stations. The operation to apprehend them involved the FSB, Investigative Committee and police.
In Russia and Ukraine, the number of acts of sabotage, often involving minors, is growing rapidly. For a promised reward from foreign security services, railway facilities, military enlistment offices, army vehicles and even helicopters are being torched.
An arson epidemic in Ukraine and Russia
On the night of September 11, at the airport in Noyabrsk, Yamalia (Russia), a helicopter was destroyed after a fire. Thirteen-year-old Timur and 14-year-old Alexander, having made their way into a guarded area through a hole in the fence, had doused the Mi-8 with a flammable liquid and set it on fire with cigarettes and then run away.
They were detained an hour later when they called an ambulance because of burns they had sustained in the fire. A stranger had put them up to it, having contacted them on social media and promised RUB 5 million. Ironically, the father of one of the boys is fighting in Ukraine.
On September 13, four young men aged 20 to 21 were arrested for setting fire to relay cabinets near the Khrapunovo railway station in Moscow Region. One of them told the police during questioning that he had received an offer via messenger to commit arson and that they had received RUB 34,000 from their handler on the same day after sending video confirmation of their work. Now, the young men are defendants in a terrorism case, facing the prospect of 20 years in prison.
On September 21, in Omsk, two 16-year-olds, having believed a stranger’s promise of $20,000, set fire to another Mi-8 helicopter. FSB special forces came for them a day later. They too are being prosecuted as terrorists.
On September 26, it was reported that three teenagers had been detained for arson on a railway in Irkutsk Region. They are suspected of torching an electricity meter on September 17 between the Irkutsk-Sortirovochny and Akademichesky railway stations. The operation to apprehend them involved the FSB, Investigative Committee and police.
“The teenagers said they had received jobs from a handler via messenger. Everything was filmed, and the recordings were sent as proof. They were paid in cryptocurrency.”
“The first job was to burn down the TV tower in Svirsk. We drained gasoline from a scooter, waited until evening; I doused it and lit it. Then a second job came: to burn a box on the railroad. For $150,” one of the teenagers explained. The third job, he said, was to set fire to an airplane at the airfield in the village of Sredny in Usolsky District (outside Irkutsk), but he considered it too dangerous and refused.
A blown-up vehicle in Kyiv (perpetrator unknown), September 2024. Source: VK
These and other small-scale terrorist attacks (primarily arson of railway infrastructure and military enlistment offices), committed in Russia almost daily and often by minors, are likely part of the hybrid warfare being carried out by the Ukrainian security services, which are thus trying to compensate for the relative weakness of Ukraine in the face of a powerful and aggressive Russia.
Meanwhile, since July, Ukrainian news agencies have been reporting similar acts on Ukrainian territory.
There are few helicopters in Ukraine, and they are better guarded, but there are many military vehicles. On September 12, the head of the National Police, Ivan Vyhovsky, said that more than 200 arson attacks on military vehicles had already been recorded in Ukraine since the beginning of the year. A quarter of them were committed by minors. In fact, there have been many more such cases.
As of the end of July 2024, in Kharkiv alone there were about 40 cases of arson of military vehicles committed by teenagers aged 12 to 18. In Odessa, the SBU detained a gang of couriers aged 18 to 24 who moonlighted as arsonists. They had burned 15 army SUVs.
A 16-year-old was caught doing the same thing in Kyiv on August 8. And the next day, a young woman who allegedly served as a Russian GRU agent, dispatcher and handler of arson groups was detained in the capital.
A month later, as reported in the Ukrainian media, “in Dnipro, unknown persons burned the car of the head of support personnel for the 93rd Separate Mechanized Brigade ‘Kholodnyi Yar,’ which had been used to carry out combat missions in Donetsk Region,” adding that “this is not the first case of arson of a brigade vehicle.”
Following National Police chief Vyhovsky’s report, five adult arsonists, residents of Sumy, Poltava and Mykolaiv regions aged 21 to 29, were detained in Kyiv. They had come to the capital to thus make some money. Investigators say they managed to set fire to five military vehicles in three districts of the city, leaving “provocative leaflets aimed at discrediting the defense forces” next to them.
On September 16, another vehicle, bought by volunteers and ready to be sent to the front lines, was torched in Kyiv. This was the work of a 16-year-old student who had come to the capital from Cherkasy, having been promised a thousand dollars by a stranger.
On September 18, police officers in Poltava detained two girls, 15 and 16 years old, who had set fire to another vehicle bought by volunteers for the Ukrainian army. They too reportedly acted on the orders of a handler who promised them a reward.
Meanwhile, since July, Ukrainian news agencies have been reporting similar acts on Ukrainian territory.
There are few helicopters in Ukraine, and they are better guarded, but there are many military vehicles. On September 12, the head of the National Police, Ivan Vyhovsky, said that more than 200 arson attacks on military vehicles had already been recorded in Ukraine since the beginning of the year. A quarter of them were committed by minors. In fact, there have been many more such cases.
As of the end of July 2024, in Kharkiv alone there were about 40 cases of arson of military vehicles committed by teenagers aged 12 to 18. In Odessa, the SBU detained a gang of couriers aged 18 to 24 who moonlighted as arsonists. They had burned 15 army SUVs.
A 16-year-old was caught doing the same thing in Kyiv on August 8. And the next day, a young woman who allegedly served as a Russian GRU agent, dispatcher and handler of arson groups was detained in the capital.
A month later, as reported in the Ukrainian media, “in Dnipro, unknown persons burned the car of the head of support personnel for the 93rd Separate Mechanized Brigade ‘Kholodnyi Yar,’ which had been used to carry out combat missions in Donetsk Region,” adding that “this is not the first case of arson of a brigade vehicle.”
Following National Police chief Vyhovsky’s report, five adult arsonists, residents of Sumy, Poltava and Mykolaiv regions aged 21 to 29, were detained in Kyiv. They had come to the capital to thus make some money. Investigators say they managed to set fire to five military vehicles in three districts of the city, leaving “provocative leaflets aimed at discrediting the defense forces” next to them.
On September 16, another vehicle, bought by volunteers and ready to be sent to the front lines, was torched in Kyiv. This was the work of a 16-year-old student who had come to the capital from Cherkasy, having been promised a thousand dollars by a stranger.
On September 18, police officers in Poltava detained two girls, 15 and 16 years old, who had set fire to another vehicle bought by volunteers for the Ukrainian army. They too reportedly acted on the orders of a handler who promised them a reward.
“Arson has become such a threat that by late September, Ukrainian soldiers had begun to keep watch over their cars while at home.”
In at least one case, they succeeded in catching arsonists: the soldiers, knowing that the saboteurs faced up to eight years in prison, suggested the captured young men go with them back to the front lines to dig trenches.
Explosion on a railway in Belgorod Region (perpetrator unknown), September 2024. Source: VK
Russian statistics on underage ‘terrorists’
The successes of the Russian and Ukrainian security services in recruiting small-time saboteurs and “terrorists” mirror each other, though the Ukrainian security services had a two-year head start. The first reported arson attack on a military vehicle in Moscow, dating back to August 28, 2022, was carried out by an obvious “noncombatant” – a 65-year-old pensioner who, relativessay, was a victim of Ukrainian telephone scammers.
Novaya Gazeta has reported that the youngest of those added to the Russian terrorist and extremist list in 2024, Yegor Lauskis from St Petersburg, who was 14 years old at the time of the crime, was convicted back in the summer of 2023 for setting fire to relay cabinets “on orders from the Ukrainians.”
Whereas about 50-60 minors have been detained in Ukraine for sabotage since the beginning of 2024, in Russia, for the same period up to September 13, 93 minors have been designated “terrorists and extremists,” Novaya Gazeta reports. Almost 80% of the teenagers on this Rosfinmonitoring list have already been convicted on terrorism charges or are suspects in ongoing terrorism cases. This is the highest number of minors on the list in at least six years.
Among them, Kholod.media notes, are three arrested 14-year-olds who turned 15 during the investigation; 16 teenagers born in 2008; 34 born in 2007; and 49 born in 2006 (25 of whom were minors as of the beginning of July).
On September 22, Rosfinmonitoring added another 27 “extremists and terrorists” to the list, nine of whom are minors. Thus, the official number of underage “saboteurs” broke 100. In reality, there are at least dozens of cases working their way through the Russian security and judicial systems, which simply have not yet reached Rosfinmonitoring.
Involving minors in crime
In Russian and international practice, minors have limited liability for criminal acts. In crimes that they commit together with adult “accomplices” or at the behest of adults, minors, considered victims of manipulation, almost always receive a lighter sentence. For adults who have committed a crime, involving minors is an aggravating factor in their cases.
Here, the Russian and Ukrainian security services, by pushing minors to commit serious crimes that risk long prison sentences and the loss of their rights long into the future, are violating international legislation on protecting children’s rights and keeping them out of armed conflicts.
This includes the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions and the 2000 Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. International law requires that a child (meaning until the age of conscription) who has been involved in an armed conflict undergoes rehabilitation and is treated without cruelty.
When it comes to Russia, neither civil society inside the country nor the international community has the ability to change repressive Russian legislation or, even more so, the behavior of the security services. The only thing to do is collect and spread information about how this repressive legislation is applied and try to use available legal means to protect arrested children.
On the other hand, Ukraine has declared its intention to become a member of the community of democratic countries, and the systematic use of minors (even those from another country) by the national security services, putting at risk their lives and health, should have become at least a topic for discussion in the Rada. Nothing of the sort is happening.
The mass use of Ukrainian minors by Russia, amid a clear lack of action to prevent such cases by the Ukrainian security services, has also failed to attract sufficient public attention in Ukraine.
Perhaps in the future, Ukraine’s Western partners will realize the scale of the problem and demand that Kyiv put an end the practice. The presidents of Russia and Ukraine must find the political will to make a deal to end the use of teenagers as saboteurs, just as they have found a way to agree on swapping PoWs and reuniting children with their parents on the other side of the front line.
The successes of the Russian and Ukrainian security services in recruiting small-time saboteurs and “terrorists” mirror each other, though the Ukrainian security services had a two-year head start. The first reported arson attack on a military vehicle in Moscow, dating back to August 28, 2022, was carried out by an obvious “noncombatant” – a 65-year-old pensioner who, relativessay, was a victim of Ukrainian telephone scammers.
Novaya Gazeta has reported that the youngest of those added to the Russian terrorist and extremist list in 2024, Yegor Lauskis from St Petersburg, who was 14 years old at the time of the crime, was convicted back in the summer of 2023 for setting fire to relay cabinets “on orders from the Ukrainians.”
Whereas about 50-60 minors have been detained in Ukraine for sabotage since the beginning of 2024, in Russia, for the same period up to September 13, 93 minors have been designated “terrorists and extremists,” Novaya Gazeta reports. Almost 80% of the teenagers on this Rosfinmonitoring list have already been convicted on terrorism charges or are suspects in ongoing terrorism cases. This is the highest number of minors on the list in at least six years.
Among them, Kholod.media notes, are three arrested 14-year-olds who turned 15 during the investigation; 16 teenagers born in 2008; 34 born in 2007; and 49 born in 2006 (25 of whom were minors as of the beginning of July).
On September 22, Rosfinmonitoring added another 27 “extremists and terrorists” to the list, nine of whom are minors. Thus, the official number of underage “saboteurs” broke 100. In reality, there are at least dozens of cases working their way through the Russian security and judicial systems, which simply have not yet reached Rosfinmonitoring.
Involving minors in crime
In Russian and international practice, minors have limited liability for criminal acts. In crimes that they commit together with adult “accomplices” or at the behest of adults, minors, considered victims of manipulation, almost always receive a lighter sentence. For adults who have committed a crime, involving minors is an aggravating factor in their cases.
Here, the Russian and Ukrainian security services, by pushing minors to commit serious crimes that risk long prison sentences and the loss of their rights long into the future, are violating international legislation on protecting children’s rights and keeping them out of armed conflicts.
This includes the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions and the 2000 Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. International law requires that a child (meaning until the age of conscription) who has been involved in an armed conflict undergoes rehabilitation and is treated without cruelty.
When it comes to Russia, neither civil society inside the country nor the international community has the ability to change repressive Russian legislation or, even more so, the behavior of the security services. The only thing to do is collect and spread information about how this repressive legislation is applied and try to use available legal means to protect arrested children.
On the other hand, Ukraine has declared its intention to become a member of the community of democratic countries, and the systematic use of minors (even those from another country) by the national security services, putting at risk their lives and health, should have become at least a topic for discussion in the Rada. Nothing of the sort is happening.
The mass use of Ukrainian minors by Russia, amid a clear lack of action to prevent such cases by the Ukrainian security services, has also failed to attract sufficient public attention in Ukraine.
Perhaps in the future, Ukraine’s Western partners will realize the scale of the problem and demand that Kyiv put an end the practice. The presidents of Russia and Ukraine must find the political will to make a deal to end the use of teenagers as saboteurs, just as they have found a way to agree on swapping PoWs and reuniting children with their parents on the other side of the front line.
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