Ukraine's SBU accuses Russian agents of recruiting Ukrainian youth for anti-Semitic stunts

The special services of the Russian Federation recruited Ukrainian teenagers for anti-Semitic provocations in various regions of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reports.

"The SBU has exposed new attempts by Russian special services to destabilize the internal situation in Ukraine and discredit our state on the international stage," the agency writes.

Thanks to the recruitment of Ukrainian minors, Russian special services tried to incite anti-Semitic sentiments in Zhytomyr Oblast, as well as in Dnipro, Lviv and Vinnytsia, law enforcement officers report.

The group consisted of 13-17-year-old students from local schools, for whose remote recruitment, the special services of the Russian Federation created a youth radical right-wing Telegram channel, the SBU notes.

"The media files obtained in this way were dispersed by the Russian special services in foreign mass media as fake publications to discredit Ukraine," the agency explains.

In Zhytomyr Oblast, a 15-year-old schoolboy from the city of Radomyshl was exposed, who was psychologically "processed" by the occupiers for a long time via the Internet, demanding that the teenager put anti-Semitic inscriptions on one of the memorial signs, law enforcement officers write.

In Dnipro, Lviv and Vinnytsia, local members of this Telegram channel were exposed - these are four schoolchildren who were called by representatives of the Russian special services to commit vandalism at memorials to the victims of the Holocaust, the SBU notes.

An investigation is currently underway examining potential violations of three criminal statutes:

→ desecration of burial sites or remains of the deceased;

→ distribution of materials promoting violence, intolerance or discrimination based on race, ethnicity or religion;

→ production and dissemination of symbols and propaganda associated with communist and Nazi totalitarian regimes.

Charges were not reported, but the maximum possible punishment from these articles is five years in prison with confiscation of property.

"The SBU calls on parents to be vigilant in order to prevent the influence of enemy special services on Ukrainian children," the agency concluded.

In May 2022, the SBU reported that the special services of the Russian Federation were using smartphone games to recruit Ukrainian children.