Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) announced today that it has detained a 16-year-old girl on suspicion of helping Moscow “prepare an airstrike” in its region of Chernihiv (north), which is on the border with Russia.

The young woman, who was arrested in the city of Chernihiv, the local capital, had been recruited by Russia’s military intelligence service (GUR) and was tasked with locating air defense and radar complexes protecting the region against Russian attacks, the SBU said in a statement. .

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Kiev and Moscow have announced that on several occasions they have arrested their compatriots accused of spying for the benefit of the other camp. But the arrest of a juvenile suspect is particularly rare in Ukraine.

According to the SBU, the teenager “called a taxi in which she moved around the area” to “secretly” photograph information about these locations and record their geolocation, and transmitted this information to her “superior” at GUR through “anonymous chat in messaging app’.

“The military counterintelligence service of the SBU” arrested the girl “red handed while taking pictures of a military installation,” the SBU said, adding that it had seized a mobile phone with “evidence of subversive actions for the benefit of Russia.”

The SBU released photos of a smartphone screen with the alleged exchange of messages in which one person asked another in Russian to gather information about military vehicles.

“Take three photos from different angles in daylight. Don’t forget geolocation,” another message said. The second person responds by promising to complete this mission “today”.

The girl is suspected of “high treason” and faces life imprisonment and confiscation of her assets, according to the SBU.

For months, authorities have suspected that Russian special services are recruiting Ukrainians to “damage” military equipment.

Wanting to “create the impression” that there is a secret network of Ukrainians opposed to the authorities, Russia wants to “destabilize” Ukrainian society and “undermine the authority” of the state, according to Olena Berezna, a spokeswoman for the national police.

Since the beginning of the year, more than 200 incidents of burning military vehicles have been recorded, the spokeswoman explained, noting that a quarter of those arrested are minors.