Teen held for mailing fatal methadone to soldiers
Police in Zhytomyr say the 17-year-old was paid by a Russian handler to send lethal doses to troops via Telegram contacts.
By Benjamin Rousseau ·
Ukrainian police in Zhytomyr detained a 17-year-old girl on Friday who is suspected of coordinating the death of two soldiers through mailed packages containing methadone. The suspect was identified as having worked under the direction of a Russian security service handler.
Investigators stated the teenager contacted six soldiers through the messaging app Telegram. She sent them parcels labeled as free drugs and instructed them to consume the contents while being filmed. The capsules inside contained a lethal dose of methadone, a detail the recipients were not told.
Two soldiers in the Zhytomyr region died after taking the medication. Police said the investigation has identified additional recipients, a move they claim prevented four more deaths from occurring across the country. The suspect has been formally charged with aiding and abetting the premeditated murder of two individuals as part of a prior conspiracy.
She also faces charges for shipping drugs and psychotropic substances for distribution. If found guilty, she could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison. Police officials indicated the suspect was promised at least 5,000 hryvnias, approximately $111, for her role in the scheme.
The Zhytomyr police department issued a public warning that the operation was designed to kill Ukrainian personnel and destabilize the domestic situation. Authorities urged citizens to avoid accepting food, drinks, or medications from strangers or those of dubious origin. This case is part of a wider pattern of minor recruitment for sabotage that has occurred since the war began in 2022.
Ukrainian authorities have opened thousands of investigations into collaboration with Moscow. Previous high-profile cases include the 2023 poisoning of the wife of Kyrylo Budanov, then head of military intelligence, and the diagnosis of similar poisoning in several GUR personnel. In a separate 2023 development, Paris prosecutors investigated the poisoning of a Russian journalist. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently told The Sun he survived between five and six assassination attempts since the invasion began.
Source: CBS News
