More than fifth of Russian intelligence's recruits in Ukraine are minors, SBU says
The SBU regularly reports detentions of suspected Russian agents, exposing and preventing terrorist acts prepared by Russian security services against military and civilian targets.
For their tasks, Russian intelligence services tend to recruit unemployed people, as well as people with criminal records or various types of addictions, according to the SBU's data.
"According to our statistics, 22% of the detected criminals are minors, 55% are unemployed, and 7% of the perpetrators have previously been convicted of various crimes," Dekhtiarenko said.
"These people are more easily swayed by psychological manipulations because young people are not able to assess the consequences of their actions fully, and addicts need money at any cost," he added.
The youngest executors of Russian orders, whom the SBU exposed for setting fire to Ukrainian Railways' (Ukrzaliznytsia) railroad switchboards, were 13-year-old teenagers. The oldest was a 52-year-old man who tried to place explosives in the Dnipro River, according to Dekhtiarenko.
Vasyl Bohdan, head of the Juvenile Prevention Department of Ukraine's National Police, said that the police are currently seeing a decrease in the number of cases of child recruitment compared to last year, while the number of reports of attempts to recruit children has increased.
Citing teenagers who have been recruited, the police identified several reasons why minors agree to such cooperation: material gain, psychological manipulation techniques based on a sense of adventure, romanticization of crime, and blackmail.
"Having some sensitive information about the child, either personal or related to simple tasks already completed, the handler can blackmail them into disclosing it," Bohdan said.
Read also: Attacks on Ukraine's draft officers on the rise, fueled by social tension and Russian interference
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USA Today
21 minutes ago
- USA Today
Russian use of chemical weapons against Ukraine 'widespread', Dutch defense minister says
THE HAGUE, July 4 (Reuters) - Dutch and German intelligence agencies have gathered evidence of widespread Russian use of banned chemical weapons in Ukraine, including dropping a choking agent from drones to drive soldiers out of trenches so they can be shot, they said on Friday. Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans called for tougher sanctions against Moscow. "The main conclusion is that we can confirm Russia is intensifying its use of chemical weapons," he told Reuters. "This intensification is concerning because it is part of a trend we have been observing for several years now, where Russia's use of chemical weapons in this war is becoming more normalized, standardized, and widespread." Germany's BND foreign intelligence agency confirmed the findings, saying in a statement that it had obtained the evidence alongside its Dutch counterparts. Reuters was first to report on the intelligence. The head of the Dutch Military Intelligence Agency (MIVD), Peter Reesink, said the conclusions followed "our own independent intelligence, so we have observed it ourselves based on our own investigations." Reuters has not been able to independently verify the use of banned chemical substances by either side in the Ukraine war. The United States first accused Russia of using chloropicrin, a chemical compound more toxic than riot control agents and first used by Germany during World War One, in May last year. More: Trump, Putin hold call after US pauses some weapons transfers to Ukraine Ukraine alleges thousands of instances of Russian chemical weapons use. Russia's defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request to comment for this article. Russia has denied using illegal munitions and it has accused Ukraine of doing so. Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, said on Wednesday that the Federal Security Service discovered a Ukrainian cache of explosive devices in the east of the country containing chloropicrin. Ukraine has consistently denied such accusations. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a disarmament agency in The Hague with 193 member states, said last year that initial accusations levelled by both countries at each other were "insufficiently substantiated". It has not been asked to conduct a full investigation, which must be initiated by member states. More: Russia continues record-setting aerial attacks, US cuts off arms shipments to Ukraine At least three Ukrainian deaths have been tied to chemical weapons use, Brekelmans said, while more than 2,500 people injured on the battlefield reported chemical weapons-related symptoms to Ukrainian health authorities. Increased use of chemical weapons by Russia poses a threat not only to Ukraine but to other countries, Brekelmans added. "We must further increase the pressure. This means looking at more sanctions and specifically not allowing them (Russia) to participate in international bodies like the Executive Council of the OPCW," he said. Reesink spoke of "thousands of instances" of chemical weapons use, while also citing a Ukrainian figure of 9,000. Rotating two-year seats on the OPCW council will be up for negotiation in the coming months. The intelligence findings were presented in a letter to the Dutch parliament on Friday. LARGE-SCALE PROGRAM Russia is a member of the OPCW and, like the United States, has destroyed its declared chemical weapons stockpiles. Increased sanctions could happen in conjunction with the European Commission, which has proposed listing 15 additional new entities and individuals to its sanctions framework, including for suspected use of chemical weapons in Ukraine. The Dutch military and general intelligence agencies, working with foreign partners, say they have uncovered concrete evidence of intensified Russian chemical weapons production. This includes heightened research capabilities and the recruitment of scientists for chemical weapons development, Reesink said. He added that Russian officials have given instructions to soldiers on the use of poisonous warfare agents. "This isn't just some ad-hoc tinkering at the frontline; it is truly part of a large-scale program. And that is, of course, also concerning because if we don't clarify and publicize what Russia is doing, it's highly likely these trends will continue," Reesink said. He called the use of chemical weapons by Russian armed forces "almost standing operating procedure." "We specifically linked the use of chloropicrin to improvised munitions, such as filled light bulbs and empty bottles that are hung from a drone. When it comes to teargas, we see that they are also misusing and converting existing munitions to act as the carrier for the gas," he said. Chloropicrin is listed as a banned choking agent by OPCW, which was created to implement and monitor compliance with the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). It can cause severe irritation to the skin, eyes, and respiratory tract. If ingested, it can cause burns in the mouth and stomach, nausea and vomiting, as well as difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. (Additional reporting by Andreas Rinke in Berlin; Editing by Mike Collett-White and William Maclean)
30 minutes ago
American bombs in Iran also reverberate in China and North Korea
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- President Donald Trump campaigned on keeping the United States out of foreign wars, but it didn't take long to convince him to come to the direct aid of Israel, hitting Iranian nuclear targets with bunker-buster bombs dropped by B-2 stealth bombers and Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from a submarine. Beyond the attack's immediate impact on helping bring the 12-day war to a close, experts say Trump's decision to use force against another country also will certainly be reverberating in the Asia-Pacific, Washington's priority theater. 'Trump's strikes on Iran show that he's not afraid to use military force — this would send a clear message to North Korea, and even to China and Russia, about Trump's style,' said Duyeon Kim, a senior analyst at the Center for a New American Security based in Seoul, South Korea. 'Before the strikes, Pyongyang and Beijing might have assumed that Trump is risk averse, particularly based on his behavior his first presidency despite some tough talk," Kim said. Ten days into the war between Israel and Iran, Trump made the risky decision to step in, hitting three nuclear sites with American firepower on June 22 in a bid to destroy the country's nuclear program at a time while negotiations between Washington and Tehran were still ongoing. The attacks prompted a pro forma Iranian retaliatory strike the following day on a U.S. base in nearby Qatar, which caused no casualties, and both Iran and Israel then agreed to a ceasefire on June 24. North Korea, China and Russia all were quick to condemn the American attack, with Russian President Vladimir Putin calling it 'unprovoked aggression,' China's Foreign Ministry saying it violated international law and 'exacerbated tensions in the Middle East,' and North Korea's Foreign Ministry maintaining it 'trampled down the territorial integrity and security interests of a sovereign state.' While the strikes were a clear tactical success, the jury is still out on whether they will have a more broad strategic benefit to Washington's goals in the Middle East or convince Iran it needs to work harder than ever to develop a nuclear deterrent, possibly pulling the U.S. back into a longer-term conflict. If the attack remains a one-off strike, U.S. allies in the Asia-Pacific region likely will see the decision to become involved as a positive sign from Trump's administration, said Euan Graham, a senior defense analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. 'The U.S. strike on Iran will be regarded as net plus by Pacific allies if it is seen to reinforce red lines, restore deterrence and is of limited duration, so as not to pull the administration off-course from its stated priorities in the Indo-Pacific,' he said. 'China will take note that Trump is prepared to use force, at least opportunistically.' In China, many who have seen Trump as having a 'no-war mentality' will reassess that in the wake of the attacks, which were partially aimed at forcing Iran's hand in nuclear program negotiations, said Zhao Minghao, an international relations professor at China's Fudan University in Shanghai. 'The way the U.S. used power with its air attacks against Iran is something China needs to pay attention to,' he said. 'How Trump used power to force negotiations has a significance for how China and the U.S. will interact in the future.' But, he said, Washington should not think it can employ the same strategy with Beijing. 'If a conflict breaks out between China and the U.S., it may be difficult for the U.S. to withdraw as soon as possible, let alone withdraw unscathed,' he said. Indeed, China and North Korea present very different challenges than Iran. First and foremost, both already have nuclear weapons, raising the stakes of possible retaliation considerably in the event of any attack. There also is no Asian equivalent of Israel, whose relentless attacks on Iranian missile defenses in the opening days of the war paved the way for the B-2 bombers to fly in and out without a shot being fired at them. Still, the possibility of the U.S. becoming involved in a conflict involving either China or North Korea is a very real one, and Beijing and Pyongyang will almost certainly try to assess what the notoriously unpredictable Trump would do. North Korea will likely be 'quite alarmed' at what Israel, with a relatively small but high-quality force, has been able to achieve over Iran, said Joseph Dempsey, a defense expert with the International Institute for Strategic Studies. At the same time, it likely will be seen internally as justification for its own nuclear weapons program, 'If Iran did have deployable nuclear weapons would this have occurred?' Dempsey said. 'Probably not.' The U.S. decision to attack while still in talks with Iran will also not go unnoticed, said Hong Min, a senior analyst at South Korea's Institute for National Unification. 'North Korea may conclude that dialogue, if done carelessly, could backfire by giving the United States a pretext for possible aggression,' he said. 'Instead of provoking the Trump administration, North Korea is more likely to take an even more passive stance toward negotiations with Washington, instead focusing on strengthening its internal military buildup and pursuing closer ties with Russia, narrowing the prospects for future talks," he said. China will look at the attacks through the visor of Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island off its coast that China claims as its own territory and President Xi Jinping has not ruled out taking by force. The U.S. supplies Taiwan with weapons and is one of its most important allies, though Washington's official policy on whether it would come to Taiwan's aid in the case of a conflict with China is known as 'strategic ambiguity," meaning not committing to how it would respond. Militarily, the strike on Iran raises the question of whether the U.S. might show less restraint than has been expected by China in its response and hit targets on the Chinese mainland in the event of an invasion of Taiwan, said Drew Thompson, senior fellow with the Singapore-based think tank RSIS Rajaratnam School of International Studies. It will also certainly underscore for Beijing the 'difficulty of predicting Trump's actions,' he said. "The U.S. airstrike on Iran's nuclear facilities caught many by surprise," Thompson said. "I think it demonstrated a tolerance and acceptance of risk in the Trump administration that is perhaps surprising.' It also gives rise to a concern that Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te, who in recent speeches has increased warnings about the threat from China, may be further emboldened in his rhetoric, said Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based foreign policy think tank Defense Priorities. Already, Lai's words have prompted China to accuse him of pursuing Taiwanese independence, which is a red line for Beijing. Goldstein said he worried Taiwan may try to take advantage of the American 'use of force against Iran to increase its deterrent situation versus the mainland.' 'President Lai's series of recent speeches appear almost designed to set up a new cross-strait crisis, perhaps in the hopes of building more support in Washington and elsewhere around the Pacific,' said Goldstein, who also is director of the China Initiative at Brown University's Watson Institute. 'I think that is an exceedingly risky gambit, to put it mildly," he said.
Time Magazine
an hour ago
- Time Magazine
Trump 'Disappointed' With Putin as Russia Pounds Ukraine
Russia has bombarded Kyiv with the largest aerial attack since the beginning of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Overnight on Thursday, Moscow launched 539 drone and 11 missile strikes that struck nearly every district of the Ukrainian capital, injuring at least 23 people. Air raid sirens rung out continuously for eight hours, coming to an end at around 5 a.m. local time. 'It was a brutal, sleepless night,' Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X. Some 478 Russian airstrike 'devices' were damaged or shot down during the attack, according to a statement from the Ukrainian Air Force released on Telegram. A Ukrainian drone on Friday targeted a power substation near Moscow. Two people were injured in the attack, according to local governor Andrei Vorobyov. The Russian strikes came hours after President Donald Trump held a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday night. 'I'm very disappointed with the conversation I had today with President Putin, because I don't think he's there… I'm just saying I don't think he's looking to stop, and that's too bad,' the President told reporters early Friday. The U.S. President is scheduled to hold a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky today. Zelensky added in his Friday post on X that the regions of Dnipro, Sumy, Kharkiv, and Chernihiv were also targeted in the overnight attacks. 'All of this is clear evidence that without truly large-scale pressure, Russia will not change its dumb, destructive behavior,' he said. Russia has in recent weeks stepped up its attacks on Ukrainian cities. Less than a week ago, it launched another record aerial assault on Ukraine. Zelensky's push for increased Western pressure on Russia was reiterated by his top aide, Andriy Yermak, who said that Putin's goal is to 'keep killing Ukrainians for as long as he's allowed to.' Poland's Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski has also slammed the overnight Russian attacks, writing on X that Putin is 'mocking' Trump with the continued offensive amid U.S.-led cease-fire efforts. 'Please restore supplies of anti-aircraft ammunition to Ukraine and impose tough new sanctions on the aggressor,' Sikorski said. Earlier this week, the Trump Administration said it would pause shipments of some military aid to Ukraine, including air defense missiles and precision-guided artillery. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the pause was needed to evaluate the state of U.S. stockpiles.
