The SSU has uncovered new attempts by russian special services to destabilize the internal situation in our country and discredit Ukraine on the international arena.

By recruiting underage Ukrainian boys, russian intelligence agencies tried to incite anti-Semitic sentiments in Zhytomyr oblast, as well as in Dnipro, Lviv and Vinnytsia.

As a result of a complex of activities, the SSU neutralized a network of provocateurs who had unwittingly been used by the aggressor.

The group included school students of 13-17 years old. To recruit them remotely, russian intelligence services created a youth right-wing radical Telegram channel.

On this Internet resource, its russian administrators, using psychological manipulation, urged Ukrainian teenagers to commit acts of anti-Semitism in their towns.

The provocations were to be in the form of insulting inscriptions on memorials and explosions caused by improvised explosive devices.

The interlocutors from the aggressor state offered subscribers of the channel to publish photo and video ‘reports’ of the committed acts.

The russian intelligence then spun these images in foreign media as fake publications to discredit Ukraine.

In Zhytomyr region:

The law enforcement identified a 15-year-old school student from Radomyshl, who had long been under psychological pressure online from the russian handlers.

The occupiers demanded that the young man write anti-Semitic inscriptions on a memorial sign in the region.

Later, similar provocative images were found on the walls of several private houses.

In Dnipro, Lviv, and Vinnytsia:

Subscribers of the same russian-controlled Telegram channel have been exposed. They were four students of local educational institutions.

The SSU documented how the russian intelligence services incited the teenagers to vandalize Holocaust memorials.

During the searches at the minors’ homes, computers and mobile phones with photo ‘reports’ of provocations, as well as components for manufacturing explosives were found.

All the uncovered facts are under investigation within the criminal proceedings initiated under three Articles of the CCU:

• 297.2 (desecration of a grave, other burial place or the body of the deceased);
• 300.1 (import, manufacture or distribution of goods promoting a cult of violence and cruelty, racial, national or religious intolerance and discrimination);
• 436-1.1 (production, distribution of communist, nazi symbols, propaganda of communist and nazi totalitarian regimes).

The SSU calls on Ukrainians to be vigilant and aware of your children’s interests and preferences in order to prevent them from being influenced by hostile special services. Please do not succumb to provocations and assist law enforcement agencies in identifying organizers, perpetrators and facilitators of criminal acts.

The operational and investigative activities were conducted jointly with the National Police under the procedural supervision of Zhytomyr Region Prosecutor’s Office.