Can Ukraine stop the bombings at its draft offices?

Ukraine in Focus

By Svitlana Morenets

Feb 7, 2025

On 1 February, a young man walked into a military enlistment office in Rivne with a bomb in his backpack. Moments later, it detonated, killing him instantly and injuring eight Ukrainian service members. He was just 21, recruited online by Russian intelligence operatives who offered quick cash for sneaking the bomb inside. This attack was not an isolated incident – it was the beginning of a wave of deadly bombings targeting draft offices across the country.

Two more attacks followed this week. In Kamianets-Podilskyi, in the Khmelnytskyi region, a man walked into a recruitment centre, bag in hand, claiming he had personal items to hand over. The bomb went off before he could drop off the bag, killing him and severely injuring two doctors, a soldier and a member of staff. In Pavlohrad, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, another bomb blast injured a serviceman. Three suspects were soon detained: all the bombers were recruited by Russian-run Telegram channels designed to sabotage Ukraine’s conscription efforts.

More than 80 per cent of Ukrainians use the Russian-made app to follow breaking news, but its hidden side offers far more. Ukrainians can earn $100 for exposing the home addresses and photos of the enlistment officers, $2,000 for setting their vehicles on fire and $5,000 for burning down a draft office. The reward for the assassination of a draft officer (usually a war veteran) is ‘negotiable’. The recruits – mainly young, unemployed men opposing conscription – start small, spreading posters in their home regions with the QR codes linking to these Telegram channels, before going on to blow up soldiers’ cars, plant explosives at enlistment offices and even carry out targeted killings.

Ukraine’s security service is working overtime to capture the collaborators. According to Serhiy Andrushchenko, first deputy head of the agency, nearly 500 people were detained last year for burning private cars of military personnel (some 300 were torched across the country), damaging railways and planting explosives at draft offices. Andrushchenko says Russians now tend to remotely detonate the bomb while the collaborator is still on-site – to avoid paying for their services. ‘Russian intelligence treats these people as expendable material,’ he said. ‘The FSB doesn’t care what happens to them once the job is done.’

As a countermeasure, Ukraine has launched an official Telegram chatbot, ‘Expose the FSB Agent’, where citizens can report suspicious messages or channels. Since December, it has received nearly 2,300 reports of Russian attempts to recruit saboteurs.

The security risks of Telegram have long been debated in Ukraine. Spy chief Kyrylo Budanov has repeatedly warned that the app poses a serious national security threat, saying that Russian intelligence services can access users’ personal data, including deleted messages. Last September, Kyiv restricted Telegram’s use on government-issued devices, banning it for state officials, military personnel and critical infrastructure workers. However, the decision doesn’t extend to personal smartphones.

A full nationwide ban has yet to be discussed. Despite its risks, Telegram remains Ukraine’s most widely used news source. Would banning it be unpopular? Almost certainly. But at a time when the country is struggling to mobilise troops and when critical infantry shortages are allowing Russian forces to push forward, it shouldn’t even be a question. As Ukraine’s army chief warned this week, national defence is impossible without public support and respect for the military. Hunting down traitors one by one is an uphill battle. Shutting down the Russian network is far easier.

Portrait of the week in Ukraine

• The first French Mirage fighter jets have arrived in Ukraine along with Ukrainian pilots who trained for months in France. The Netherlands also delivered F-16s.
• A Ukrainian delegation, led by Volodymyr Zelensky, will present the country’s position on ending the war at the Munich Security Conference next week. They will be joined by Keith Kellogg, US special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, for talks on the peace plan. He will then go to Kyiv. 
• Ukraine is open to mining its rare earth materials alongside partners after Donald Trump suggested exchanging them for US aid. Kyiv also offered to store US liquefied natural gas in underground facilities.
• Ukrainian troops have reportedly launched a new offensive in Russia’s Kursk region.
• A pro-Russian collaborator from the Donetsk region, who is wanted by Ukraine, was killed in an explosion in Moscow.
• The defence ministry has started military reforms to switch to a corps-based structure.
• The UK will chair Ukraine’s Ramstein summit in Brussels next week – the first time it has been held outside the US.
• A 38-nation coalition has reported ‘significant progress’ toward establishing a special tribunal to prosecute Russian leaders for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.
• Trump’s USAID freeze has halted programmes supporting the prosecutions of Russian war crimes and the restoration of Ukraine’s energy grid.
• Greenpeace has urged the IAEA to prevent Moscow from restarting the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to generate electricity for Russia.
• UN monitors have recorded an ‘alarming rise’ in Russian executions of Ukrainian POWs, with 79 cases since last August.
• The US Justice Department is shuttering a programme that sanctioned Russian oligarchs.

Wider reading on the war

Has Ukraine just carried out another assassination in Moscow? – The Spectator

Trump wants Ukraine’s ‘rare earths’ – what critical minerals does it actually have? – Kyiv Indepdenent

In Kursk, Ukrainians try to sway Russian minds. And film it. – Washington Post

Putin can’t seize back Ukraine’s trump card as US pushes talks – Bloomberg

Russia’s costly conquest in Ukraine: when expansion yields few gains – Foreign Affairs

In pictures

London-Kyiv: Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with Piers Morgan that he is ready to end the active phase of the war in exchange for concrete security guarantees that Russia won’t attack again.

Quote of the week

‘If that is the only set-up in which we can bring peace to the citizens of Ukraine and not lose people, definitely, we will go for this set-up … What does it matter, my attitude to him [Vladimir Putin]? I will not be kind to him, I consider him an enemy. And to be honest, I believe he considers me an enemy as well.’

– Volodymyr Zelensky said he is ready to sit at the negotiating table with Putin

The war in numbers:

Critical material deposits in Ukraine

$12tn

Trump says he wants rare earth minerals in exchange for US support

US provision of total Ukrainian weapons

30%

Domestic production accounts for 40%

Ukraine frees PoWs in Russian prisoner swap

150

The same number of Russians were returned

.

A note from the author: Thank you for your interest in this newsletter. I hope it helps you to understand my country – and the war – better from a Ukrainian perspective. If you enjoy the Ukraine in Focus newsletter, please forward it to someone you know: you can sign up here. My writing for The Spectator can be found here. All feedback is welcome: svitlana@spectator.co.uk