Sabotage by smartphone

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1:10It's mid-summer 2025 in Rivne, in western Ukraine. CCTV footage shows a teenager in a grey tracksuit approaching a parked van belonging to Ukraine's conscription service. The teenager crouches down, and, according to the Ukrainian authorities, plants a bomb inside the van. He's hidden a camera nearby, live-streaming the scene to his handlers. This is to let them know when someone is in the van and then they'll detonate the bomb remotely. But the attack is foiled and investigators move in. The young Ukrainian has been under surveillance even before he travelled here from Zaporizhia in Ukraine's south-east, nearly 500 miles away.

1:57Investigators say he's been recruited on Telegram by Russian agents and promised money to plant the bomb. This is the documentary from BBC Trending with me, Dan Hardoon. We've been investigating how Ukrainian citizens, some of them reportedly as young as 12, are being recruited on Telegram to carry out acts of sabotage against their own country. The handlers' instructions were clear. The explosive device was to be activated the moment the servicemen got into the vehicle. We've spoken to the teenager who was allegedly commissioned to carry out that failed attack and now faces years behind bars if convicted of terrorism charges.

2:38When I was connecting the wires, I thought it could explode then. I thought I might die. And we've gone undercover in the Telegram channels recruiting Ukrainians for sabotage. I need damage. You either need to pour petrol inside or throw a few Molotov cocktails inside.

3:00The detention centre in Rivna, where the teenager accused of sabotages being held, is an old red brick building ringed with barbed wire. Entry is controlled through three gates, and guards with dogs patrol the yard as an alarm sounds. The BBC has gained rare access to interview this teenager who we're calling Vlad He's led down the corridor to meet us in the assembly hall accompanied by his lawyer who's present throughout the interview He's 18 now but looks much younger with a shaved head and wearing a loose fitting tracksuit He shifts uncomfortably in his chair as he describes the first message he received from a recruiter and his words are spoken by an actor They wrote to me, do you want to make some quick money?

3:49It's easy. And I wrote back, what do I need to do? At 17, Vlad says he was desperate for money to rent a flat and help his large family. He joined two Telegram channels and posted that he was looking for remote work. Within half an hour, a man calling himself Ramon replied. When they later talked on the phone, Vlad says Roman spoke Russian with a street accent. He sent me a poster showing explosions at the offices of the Ukrainian Security Services, the police, post office and military recruitment centre. Vlad insists he'd never been drawn to crime and has no sympathy for Russia. I told this person that I would not work for him.

4:35About an hour later, he wrote, What's the matter? I have a lot of people working for me. Since they were 11 years old, no one gets arrested. Security's at the highest level. So I agreed. He started giving me tasks. At first, the tasks were small. Vlad was told to collect a grenade, but when he reached the 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 military conscription centre, film it and run. I said, no, I'm not ready. My adrenaline will go through the roof. If they catch me quickly, that's it. But Roman said, don't worry, you're a proper dude.

5:20You'll be fine. Well, I thought about it and agreed. I had a huge adrenaline rush, especially when I was standing there filming and someone shouted at me from the balcony, what are you doing? For that attack, Vlad says he received about$100 in cryptocurrency, much less than the$1 ,500 he'd been promised. Ramon told him he'd get the rest if he agreed to a third, more dangerous task. Here's the investigator on Vlad's case. His words are spoken by an actor to protect his anonymity. People initially perform simple tasks. And when a person agrees to do this, they're given a small amount of money. He says Vlad's story fits the typical pattern of Ukrainians recruited for sabotage.

6:07Then they can take on more difficult tasks, making explosives or transporting them. He's clear on who he believes was directing Vlad. His handler was a representative of the Russian Federation. We have evidence. I cannot disclose the evidence in this particular criminal case, but based on experience, the special services of the Russian Federation use social networks, mainly Telegram, to recruit Ukrainian citizens. The BBC has not been able to independently verify the evidence in Vlad's case, but we'll explore in more detail who's behind these Telegram channels later in the episode. Vlad says he was then ordered to travel across the country to Rivne to plant a bomb under a van belonging to Ukraine's conscription service.

6:51The explosives had already been hidden in a nearby park, along with a phone to live-stream the scene so his handlers could detonate the bomb remotely. But little did Vlad know that Ukraine's security service, the SBU, were already monitoring him as he received orders from his handler over the phone. He said it wasn't locked. Well, I went over and pulled the handle. Yes, it was open. He said, put it between the passenger and the driver's seat and take the mat and cover it. I put the explosives there and covered them with the mat. In our interview with Vlad, we challenged him about the potential consequences.

7:31Didn't he understand he might be helping to kill someone? I did think about it, but nobody likes conscription officers. I thought, well, I'll be like everyone else. Now Vlad thought his work was finished and that this would be his last job before getting paid. But hours later, the SBU came to arrest him. He was scared. He didn't understand what was happening. It's impossible to describe that feeling. It was very scary when the SBU officers came in. But how does someone go from looking for extra cash to planting a bomb? The BBC was tipped off to several Telegram channels where this recruitment takes place.

8:19We joined a few of them and contacted some of the individual accounts in Ukrainian, using a burner phone and an alias. Their replies, written in Russian, came back almost instantly. One account immediately offered us money to carry out arson. We were told to contact a second account for more details, and we then received a message with a price list detailing how much they were willing to pay for different targets. Post offices,$1 ,500. Prosecutor's office,$2 ,000. Bank branches,$3 ,000. When we asked why banks were worth more, they texted back that banks are harder to attack because of the security glass.

9:00I need damage. It's not so easy to throw a Molotov cocktail into a bank. You either need to pour petrol inside or throw a few Molotov cocktails inside. Some of these telegram channels are filled with posts attacking Ukraine's government and the military draft. They share videos that appear to show conscription officers using violence against people being drafted. Now, these channels are not explicitly pro-Russian, but they do amplify anger felt by some Ukrainians towards Ukraine's conscription service. It's been dogged by allegations of corruption and brutality, and President Zelensky has described officials who take bribes as being guilty of, quote, high treason.

9:39Volodymyr Litvinov is a Ukrainian journalist who's investigated these groups. Of course, we have cases of illegal and brutal actions by recruiting office employees. But also we have so many disinformation campaigns in different social media about illegal actions of recruiting office employees, but it was all fake. But even ordinary Ukrainians just looking for work can find themselves offered money to carry out sabotage. We found part-time high-pay ads in other Ukrainian telegram groups, like one for refugees and even beauty tips. Another recruiter we spoke to offered thousands of dollars for arson attacks.

10:27We asked how we could be sure we'd get paid. My guarantees that I won't cheat are the following. I need all the arson I can get. Finding a reliable person is far more difficult than parting with money. That's why I pay exactly what I say and I do it very quickly, usually within a couple of hours after receiving the video. All of the contacts we spoke to demanded video proof before payment. Their channels contained clips of fires and explosions which they claimed were carried out on their orders. But the BBC has not been able to verify the circumstances of those videos. We also approached Telegram for comment.

11:08In a statement, they said, Calls to violence or destruction of property are explicitly forbidden on Telegram and are immediately removed whenever discovered. Moderators empowered with custom AI tools proactively monitor public parts of the platform and accept reports in order to remove millions of pieces of harmful content each day, including calls to violence. More than 250 ,000 terrorism related groups and channels have been removed globally since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. However, at the time of recording, Telegram had removed a few, but not most of the channels and accounts we reported to them.

11:45You're listening to the documentary from the BBC World Service.

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13:25In this episode, I'm investigating how Ukrainians, many of them teenagers, are being approached on Telegram to carry out acts of sabotage against their own country. But who's behind these Telegram channels? Now the SBU says it has firm evidence that Russia is organising this recruitment and it's publicly named members of Russia's intelligence agencies who it suspects of acting as handlers. The SBU says it has detained around 800 Ukrainians recruited not just through Telegram but other online platforms. Nearly 100 judicial verdicts have already been issued. The BBC hasn't been able to independently verify that the Russian state itself is responsible for these cases.

14:09But there have been other incidents across Europe where Russia has been accused of recruiting people for sabotage. Cheyenne Sardar-Rizadeh is a disinformation expert with BBC Verify. There have been several cases just in the last year or so where a number of European governments have said that they have evidence of Russian intelligence recruiting young men to carry out acts of vandalism, arson, or even surveillance in their countries. So for instance, a few months ago, here in the UK, three young men were convicted of setting fire to a warehouse in London which sent satellite equipment to Ukraine.

14:50And investigators said that they had been recruited by the Russian group Wagner via the Telegram messaging gap. The Polish government earlier this year said that they had evidence that Russia was behind a fire at a shopping centre in Warsaw last year. And they said, again, Russia had recruited people via the telegram messaging out to carry out the attack. But even with a coordinated recruitment campaign, what would make a Ukrainian sabotage their own side? It's a question I put to Ukrainian journalist Volodymyr Litvinov. Do you think there are many Ukrainians who are willing to carry out acts of sabotage in their own country?

15:29I don't think so. In the majority of cases, it's a question of money and some social problems. I don't think that a lot of people who carry terrorist attacks, especially teens, are pro-Russian or have a really strong anti-governmental or anti-mobilization feeling. Because if you're anti-governmental, you can do something, not a terrorist attack at least. Volodymyr's view is echoed by the SBU. It says most saboteurs are motivated by money, not ideology. According to its statistics, more than half of people involved in attacks are unemployed, 7 % have existing criminal records, and crucially more than a quarter are minors.

16:16We spoke to a child psychologist at the Rivne detention centre who explains which teenagers are most at risk. Her words are spoken by an actor. These are children with low self-esteem. Children who do not communicate with others, who are isolated or lonely. And when they are offered support elsewhere, they feel it and go there. It may even be a difficult financial situation in the family. In Vlad's case, financial pressures may have played a part, according to his mother. Her words are spoken by an actor. Maybe he did it for money. My husband would sometimes shout at him, why are you such a failure?

16:58He probably wanted to prove to his dad he could bring in some money, that he could earn something, just not in such a way. When this happened, nobody in our village could believe he could have done such a thing. The psychologist we spoke to explained why young people make particularly good recruitment targets. Children do not see the long-term consequences. You see, we are at war and there is a lot of misinformation and propaganda. And teenagers get confused. They don't know who to believe. Parents need to pay attention to their children. because, after all, how does such recruitment take place?

17:39It happens through the internet. To combat this, the SBU has launched a campaign encouraging schoolchildren to speak up if their approach to carry out sabotage.

17:54One cinematic video campaign shows a teenage girl throwing a Molotov cocktail at a military vehicle. Moments later, security officers burst in and arrest her in her bedroom. The SBU claims some Russian handlers have deliberately detonated bombs while the people carrying them were near Ukrainian military or important buildings, effectively turning them into unwitting suicide bombers. Artem Dektyarenko is a spokesperson for the SBU. If a person agrees to collaborate with the enemy, they face three scenarios. First, they will end up in jail. Second, they risk becoming disabled or third, dying, because over the last year there has been a tendency for the enemy not merely to give a task, but to liquidate their own agents.

18:46They call these agents one-off. That is, the Russians remotely detonate an improvised explosive device together with their agent. The BBC put the allegations in this programme to the Russian embassy in London. This was their response. The practices you mentioned have become a trademark of the Ukrainian special services. Recruitment of civilians, in particular children, to carry out arson, sabotage or bombings against buildings, people or vehicles. There have been reports attributing acts of sabotage inside Russia to Ukrainian recruitment on Telegram. But again, it is notoriously difficult to verify who exactly is behind these attacks.

19:29Back at the Rivne detention centre, Vlad faces up to 12 years in prison if he's convicted. There's a possibility he could be asked to serve in the Ukrainian army instead. He has this warning for other Ukrainians offered suspicious jobs on Telegram. No one should fall for these provocations. It's not worth it. They will either cheat you and then you will end up in prison just like me, or you can take a bomb in your hands and it will simply blow you up. That's it for this edition of the documentary from BBC Trending with me, Dan Hardoon. Thanks to our colleagues from BBC News Ukrainian, producer Ed Main, Hal Haynes for mixing this episode and to BBC Trending's editor, Flora Carmichael.

20:25We focus on the part of the internet that most people don't know about. It's called the dark web. Undercover in the furthest corners of the dark web, US special agents are on a mission to locate and rescue children from abuse. Move in now. From the BBC World Service, World of Secrets, the darkest web follows their shocking investigations. Search for World of Secrets wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Thank you.