Sabotage by smartphone

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ukrainian teenagers are being recruited online to carry out sabotage against their own country in return for cryptocurrency, and for some the consequences are deadly. Ukraine accuses Russia of using Telegram to offer minors large sums of money to plant bombs or stage arson attacks. There have even been allegations that some recruits have been blown up while transporting explosive devices. This episode features a rare interview with a Ukrainian teenager who is currently awaiting trial after authorities claim they caught him planting a bomb in a vehicle used by the conscription service. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from BBC Trending in-depth reporting on the world of social media.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:08.1	It's midsummer 2025 in Rivner in Western Ukraine.
0:14.1	CCTV footage shows a teenager in a grey track suit,
0:17.6	approaching a parked van belonging to Ukraine's conscription service.
0:22.1	The teenager crouches down and according to the Ukrainian authorities plants a bomb inside the van.
0:29.0	He's hidden a camera nearby live streaming the scene to his handlers.
0:33.5	This is to let them know when someone is in the van, and then they'll detonate the bomb remotely.
0:40.1	But the attack is foiled, and investigators move in.
0:45.3	The young Ukrainian has been under surveillance
0:47.8	even before he travelled here from Zaporisia in Ukraine-Southeast,
0:52.2	nearly 500 miles away.
0:55.2	Investigators say he's been recruited on telegram by Russian agents
0:59.0	and promise money to plant the bomb.
1:02.5	This is the documentary from BBC Trending with me, Dan Hardoon.
1:07.3	We've been investigating how Ukrainian citizens,
1:10.5	some of them reportedly as young as 12,
1:12.6	are being recruited on telegram to carry out acts of sabotage against their own country.
1:18.6	The handless instructions were clear. The explosive device was to be activated the moment the servicemen got into the vehicle.
1:26.6	We've spoken to the teenager who was allegedly commissioned to carry out that
1:30.6	falled attack and now faces years behind bars if convicted of terrorism charges.
1:36.8	When I was connecting the virus, I thought it could explode then.
1:41.6	I thought I might die.
	...

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