Ukrainian teen saboteurs recruited on Telegram to attack their own country

In July this year a 17-year-old travelled 500 miles from his home in eastern Ukraine to collect a bomb and a phone hidden in a park in the western city of Rivne.

Andriy Nebytov, Deputy Head of Ukraine's National Police, says there is a deliberate strategy to seek out the vulnerable who can be manipulated.

"Children do not always fully realise the consequences of their actions," he says.

"The enemy is not ashamed of using minors for making explosives out of household chemicals, planting them in various locations such as army recruitment offices or police stations."

The SBU says recruitment primarily takes place on the Telegram app, but also on TikTok, and even on video game platforms. Officials says those who are recruited are almost always motivated by money rather than pro-Russian sympathies.

Vlad says he does not support Russia and had no previous involvement with crime.

He had joined two Telegram channels and posted that he was looking for remote work. Within half an hour, a man calling himself Roman replied. When they later talked on the phone, Vlad says Roman spoke Russian with a street accent.

Vlad says he was initially reluctant but was persuaded to take on a series of increasingly dangerous tasks. First, he was told to collect a grenade but when he reached the designated location it wasn't there. He was paid $30 anyway.

A few days later came another job - to set fire to a van belonging to a conscription centre, film it and run.

For that attack, Vlad says he received about $100 in cryptocurrency - much less than the $1,500 he'd been promised. Roman told him he would get the rest if he planted the bomb in Rivne.