The SBU has charged a Russian soldier with recruiting a 15-year-old girl
The Security Service of Ukraine has announced that it has charged a Russian servicemember suspected of recruiting a 15-year-old Ukrainian girl to gather intelligence on the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Kramatorsk.
According to the investigation, the occupier recruited the minor to provide the coordinates of Ukrainian military personnel, equipment, and ammunition storage sites. The SBU is continuing to investigate the circumstances of this case.
According to the investigation, the suspect is 27-year-old Nikita Zorin, a native of Gatchina in the Leningrad Region of the Russian Federation, a serviceman of the 237th Tank Regiment of the 3rd Motorized Rifle Division of the 20th Combined Arms Army of the Russian Federation.
Investigators established that the Russian man made contact via Telegram with a Ukrainian minor born in 2009, who was 15–16 years old at the time. Knowing her age, he persuaded the girl to collect and transmit military intelligence in the interests of the Russian army.
According to investigators, the recruited girl systematically passed on information to the occupiers regarding the locations of Ukrainian Armed Forces units, military equipment, ammunition depots, and law enforcement officers in Kramatorsk.
Law enforcement officials documented at least four instances of information transfer in the fall of 2025. Specifically, this included information regarding the presence of Ukrainian military personnel in the area of Oleksa Tykhyi, Ivan Syla, Maria Pryimachenko, Elevatorna, and Siverska streets. The transmitted data also included the coordinates of air defense systems.
The case materials concerning the minor have been separated into a separate criminal proceeding. According to the investigation, she is charged with high treason committed under martial law.
The Russian serviceman himself was notified of his status as a suspect under Part 1 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine—a war crime, specifically the recruitment and use of a child to participate in an armed conflict. The SBU emphasizes that such actions grossly violate the norms of international humanitarian law, in particular the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
This information comes from the project “The Book of Torturers of the Ukrainian People.”
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