$5,000 for Killing a Soldier: Journalist Posing as a Woman Exposes Russian Recruiter

A journalist from Slidstvo.Info, posing as 22-year-old Kyiv resident Masha Bragina, conducted an experiment on recruitment by Russian special services. During a month-long correspondence on the Telegram messenger app, an unknown handler offered him a cash reward of $5,000 for the murder of any Ukrainian serviceman.

This information came to light in the documentary investigation “FSB Ballerinas: Ukrainian Women in the Service of the Russians,” released by the investigative journalism team at “Slidstvo.Info”.

The main objective of this journalistic experiment was to thoroughly investigate the mechanisms used by Russian special services to recruit Ukrainian women to carry out criminal tasks on Ukrainian territory.

The assignment was carried out by journalist Oleh Kotiuzhanskyi, who created a fake Telegram profile of a young woman who was supposedly in a difficult financial situation due to family conflicts. To make it more believable, the investigator edited his own photo using special software, giving himself feminine facial features.

Within an hour of registering and posting the ads in job search chat rooms, the journalist started receiving a flood of criminal offers. He was asked to set fire to the Territorial Center of Recruitment (TCR) and police vehicles, plant explosive devices, and conduct reconnaissance and photographic documentation of defense facilities.

Later, in one of the chat rooms, “Masha” responded to a high-paying job posting, where a Russian-speaking handler immediately suggested in private messages that she eliminate a Ukrainian soldier. According to the client’s instructions, the contractor was to find the victim on her own and record the murder on video as proof.

For the murder, the recruiter suggested using an unknown toxic substance with the chemical scent of wildflowers, which had to be poured under the hood of a car or inside a residence. According to the handler, the fumes from this solvent act like silent carbon monoxide and cause cardiac arrest, which doctors are highly likely to classify as a natural heart attack. The correspondence lasted about a month, during which the client regularly changed accounts, using purchased accounts from various countries worldwide. Due to the high level of secrecy and the constant switching between four profiles, journalists were unable to identify the coordinator’s real identity.

The perpetrator concealed his face, called himself the “big mafia boss,” and sent only audio messages with a voice pitch artificially lowered using software. Experts at Slidstvo.Info managed to partially restore the original sound and remove the digital filter from the recruiter’s voice files.

In his instructions, the handler promised to provide the operative with disposable cell phones, anonymous phone numbers, and technical means to disguise her voice. He emphasized the importance of working independently, noting that all agents operate alone and never cross paths.

The client also explained that Russian intelligence agencies specifically target young women because they can move freely throughout the country without the risk of being detained by the TCC. Additionally, during the conversation, the man revealed his foreign origin by asking the journalist what the historic Podil district was, due to his unfamiliarity with the area.

Throughout the conversation, the coordinator constantly employed psychological pressure tactics, alternating between crude insults when “Masha” was offline and sudden shifts to flirtation. At the same time, it became known that since the beginning of 2026, underage girls recruited in Ukraine had already committed five similar contract killings of military personnel.

After receiving detailed instructions and a proposal to murder a serviceman, journalist Oleh Kotiuzhanskyi officially contacted the Security Service of Ukraine hotline at the short number 1516. Following the security service operator’s instructions, the collected materials and screenshots of the perpetrator’s profile were sent to the specialized “Burn the FSB Agent” chatbot.