Illustrative photo of a car on fire. (Rick Elkins via Getty Images)
Ukrainian children are being recruited by Russia via social media to set fire to military cars parked in cities, Ukraine's Human Rights Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on June 18.
Children are offered "several thousand dollars" to commit arson, Lubinets said.
Cases of setting fire to military vehicles have been reportedly recorded in Kyiv, Odesa, and Dnipro.
Recruiting children to set fire to military vehicles is one of the ways Russia is trying to destabilize Ukraine's domestic situation, Lubinets said.
"Such acts involve criminal liability," Lubinets said, and urged parents to warn and educate their children about the recruitment schemes on social networks.
Elsa Court is the audience development manager at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a news editor at the Kyiv Independent and was an intern at the Kyiv Post in 2018. She has a Master’s in Conflict Studies and Human Rights from Utrecht University. Elsa is originally from the UK.
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