The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU or SSU) has revealed a new spying operation that is believed to be carried out by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and entails enlisting Ukrainian children for illegal purposes under the pretence of “quest games.”
According to law enforcement officials, it arrested two groups of FSB agents after conducting a special operation in Kharkiv. According to the organisation, only children between the ages of 15 and 16 were included in these groupings.
“The minors carried out hostile tasks of conducting reconnaissance, correcting strikes, and arson,” the SSU said in a statement issued on Friday. “To mask subversive activities, both enemy cells operated separately from each other.”
The children were given geographic coordinates and told to get to the place, take pictures and videos of targets, and offer a broad description of the region in accordance with the FSB’s quest game regulations.
These reconnaissance flights’ findings were then communicated to the Russian intelligence service through anonymous communications. According to the SSU, airstrikes were conducted in Kharkiv using the information obtained from these activities.
Additionally, Ukraine’s main security agency declared that it had arrested “all members of the enemy groups” who were seen snapping pictures of the nation’s air defence installations. After being arrested, one of the organisers risks a life sentence.
A police officer from Russia’s Krasnodar region who is a “liaison” of the FSB agent groups is also charged in relation to the attempts. Under Part 2 of Article 113 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code, which deals with sabotage activities carried out during martial law, he has been accused in absentia.
The development coincides with a warning from Ukraine’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UA) about a fresh wave of cyberattacks that it said targeted the nation’s defence industries, security personnel, and defence infrastructure. A Russian-affiliated actor identified as UAC-0185 has been blamed for the intrusions.