Kiev wrangles 46 young Russians into terrorist activities via Telegram bot in one year

Kiev wrangles 46 young Russians into terrorist activities via Telegram bot in one year Young people have been detained in 16 Russian regionsMOSCOW, July 29. /TASS/. Ukrainian security services have wrangled over 40 Russians aged 12 to 22 from 17 Russian regions into terrorist activities via the Dayvinchik/Leo match bot on the Telegram messenger, the press office of the Federal Security Service (FSB) reported. "The Russian Federal Security Service has identified and recorded numerous instances of Ukrainian security services employing the Dayvinchik/Leo Telegram match bot, which is popular among young people, to wrangle Russian citizens into sabotage and terrorist activities through deception and manipulation," the press office noted. Since July 2025, the FSB, together with the Interior Ministry and the Investigative Committee, has "detained 46 Russian citizens aged 12 to 22, users of the aforementioned Telegram chatbot, who, on the instructions of Ukrainian security services, had carried out armed attacks on law enforcement officers, committed arson of transport, energy, communications, and banking facilities, and acted as couriers transferring money from defrauded citizens through crypto-exchange points into accounts controlled by the adversary," the FSB reported. Young people have been detained in the Moscow Region, St. Petersburg, the Leningrad Region, the Chuvash Republic, the Republic of Bashkortostan, the Altai, Belgorod, Vladimir, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Rostov, Ryazan, Saratov, Sverdlovsk, Ulyanovsk, and Yaroslavl Regions. Recruitment scheme According to the FSB press office, Ukrainian intelligence officers used the Dayvinchik/Leo Telegram match bot to pose as girls to establish online contact to young men. To build romantic relationships, the victims shared the geolocation data of the desired meeting spots, usually at major shopping malls near socially significant facilities, and purchased movie, concert tickets or gifts via phishing links. "After that, Ukrainian security officers contacted the victims via foreign messengers and impersonated Russian law enforcement officers or Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service officials. The fake officers said that the money had gone to Ukrainian forces’ accounts and that the shared location data had been used by the adversary to coordinate missile and drone attacks," the FSB reported. Then the deceived and intimidated young men, unable to critically assess the situation under psychological pressure, were wrangled, under threat of criminal charges, to carry out armed attacks and commit arson supposedly "as part of an assessment of anti-terrorist security of facilities" or participation in other fake operations. Opened cases The FSB has opened criminal cases over the offenses committed by these young people under articles on terrorist attacks, sabotage, intentional destruction of property or damage to it, hooliganism, and an attempted assault on a law enforcement officer. "Perpetrators, who have reached the age of criminal liability, have been formally charged. In accordance with Russian law, measures of restraint have been imposed on them. Given the seriousness of their crimes, they are facing long prison terms," the FSB press office emphasized. The FSB recalled that on December 23, 2025, the Dayvinchik/Leo Telegram match bot was added to Roskomnadzor’s (Russia’s mass media and telecommunications watchdog) unified register of banned websites due to child pornography and LGBT propaganda (the LGBT movement is designated as extremist and banned in Russia). "However, in violation of Russian law, Telegram’s administration has failed to delete this banned content and numerous channels, chats and bots of this messenger, actively used by Ukrainian security services, terrorist and extremist organizations to prepare and coordinate acts of sabotage and terrorism, mass killings, and cyber fraud in Russia," the FSB press office noted. 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