A Ukrainian police chief is claiming that Russia is recruiting teenage girls to murder serviceman.
Reuters reported that national police chief Ivan Vyhivskyi discussed the tactic following the arrest of a 17-year-old girl. The girl, a Ukrainian teen, is accused of murdering a serviceman on the orders of a Russian operative.
"We are talking about planned murders organized by the special services of the aggressor state and carried out by Ukrainian citizens," Vyhivskyi said, according to Reuters.
The New York Post reported that the girl allegedly received and used a clear powder, believed to be methadone, to carry out the assassination. The incident happened at a home in the Zhytomry region.
The newspaper reported that Russian recruiters contacted young women on messaging platforms, promising them money. According to the outlet, the women were asked by their recruiters to go on dating websites and search for Ukrainian military personnel. It went on to say that the women also were told where they could find methadone and were coached as to how to poison the men.
Reuters reported that, throughout the course of the war, more than 1,100 Ukrainians have been accused of committing arson, terrorism or sabotage in betrayal of their country.
Hostilities between Russia and Ukraine date back to 2014, when Russia seized Crimea. In 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine with a goal of reaching Kyiv and decapitating the country's leadership. That plan failed, but Russian forces continue to occupy large sections of eastern Ukraine where the war continues along established battle lines.
However, the country's long-standing strategy of leveraging its larger population and industrial capacity to outlast Ukraine may be facing new challenges as recruitment rates decline despite increasingly generous financial incentives for military service.
CNN noted in a new report citing numerous military and economic analysts that the Kremlin has largely relied on its demographic advantage to sustain a costly war of attrition against Ukraine.
However, as the conflict enters its fifth year, Russia's ability to replenish battlefield losses is becoming more difficult, even as the government offers unprecedented bonuses to attract recruits.
Across Russia, military recruitment advertisements promise signing bonuses worth millions of rubles, debt forgiveness equivalent to as much as $140,000, and fast-tracked citizenship for foreigners willing to join the armed forces. In some regions, enlistment incentives can exceed $80,000, more than four times the country's average annual salary.
Yet, those incentives appear to be losing their appeal. According to Russian economy expert Janis Kluge, military recruitment fell by roughly 20% during the first quarter of 2026 compared to the same period a year earlier. Analysts cited by CNN say Moscow is increasingly struggling to replace troops lost on the battlefield.
