Ukraine's national police chief has accused Russian intelligence services of directing teenage Ukrainian women to assassinate members of the Ukrainian armed forces, following the arrest of a 17-year-old who is suspected of poisoning a serviceman on orders from an alleged Russian handler.
In an interview published by a Ukrainian outlet, Police Chief Ivan Vyhivskyi said law enforcement had identified six incidents this year in which contract killings were organised through the Telegram messaging app, and that authorities prevented one of those plots. "We are talking about planned murders organised by the special services of the aggressor state and carried out by Ukrainian citizens," he said.
Vyhivskyi described a pattern in which recruiters used messaging platforms to locate and groom young women, offering promises of easy money and providing remote coordination of their actions. According to the police chief, handlers instructed the women to seek out Ukrainian military personnel on dating websites, funded their rental of apartments to facilitate meetings, and supplied guidance on obtaining methadone, which could be used to lace drinks and prove fatal in high doses.
Police in the western Zhytomyr region detained a 17-year-old last week after a serviceman was poisoned. Investigators reported that the teenager had been communicating on Telegram with a man who is believed to be an agent of Russian security services. The detained woman reportedly received a parcel containing a crystalline substance that police said they presumed to be methadone.
Ukraine's security service has previously reported that more than 1,100 citizens have been accused of arson, terrorism or sabotage during the course of the war. The national police chief's comments add to that catalogue of alleged hostile activity targeting Ukrainian society from within.
Attempts to reach Russia's FSB security service for comment were not immediately successful, the police chief said. The report also noted reciprocal accusations by Russian security services that Kyiv recruits Russians to carry out bombings inside Russia. Separately, Ukrainian military intelligence has at times claimed responsibility for the killings of senior Russian officers since the 2022 invasion.
Telegram provided a comment via email, saying that recruitment attempts for sabotage on its platform are regularly identified and removed. Devon Spurgeon, a Telegram spokesperson, was quoted as saying: "Telegram is a platform for peaceful communication and privacy, not war."
Legal and investigative status
Authorities have linked the detained 17-year-old to a chain of communications and a delivered package that investigators believe contained methadone. Beyond the detention, officials have characterised the incidents as part of an organised effort by foreign special services to weaponise vulnerable citizens, but concrete details about the alleged handlers remain limited in the public reporting.
Context within wider security claims
The police chief's statements sit alongside mutual allegations between Ukrainian and Russian security services. While Ukrainian officials report multiple internal accusations of sabotage and other crimes, Russian agencies have levelled claims that Ukraine recruits operatives to attack targets inside Russia. Those broader assertions were noted in the police chief's account but were not elaborated with new verifications in the interview.
This account is based on statements released by Ukrainian police and comments provided by Telegram, as reported publicly by Ukrainian media.