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SSU warns: enemy increasingly often uses ‘honey traps’ in attempt to kill Ukrainian military personnel (video)

The SSU Military Counterintelligence has recorded a significant increase in activity by russian intelligence services attempting to eliminate Ukrainian servicemen using the ‘honey trap’ tactic. This involves targeting Defence Forces personnel with the intention of killing them through online dating and arranging meetings with women.

Since the beginning of 2026, the Security Service of Ukraine has prevented more than 50 such incidents.

The ruscists mainly use dating websites and themed chat rooms on messaging apps to lure soldiers into the trap. These platforms are infiltrated by enemy agents operating under fake accounts, offering soldiers the prospect of intimate relationships.

The russian intelligence services then arrange meetings with the men, inviting them to pre-arranged locations with the intention of killing them.

Improvised explosive devices are most often used by the russians to eliminate Ukrainian defenders, which they plant at the site of the planned attack.

The enemy also uses lethal poisons synthesised from narcotics, psychotropics, and other chemical substances.

For example, in March 2025, an FSB agent was detained in the Kharkiv region who had, under the guise of ‘volunteer’ aid, passed on medicines and food to a Ukrainian Armed Forces soldier which she had poisoned.

Another enemy agent sent a Ukrainian soldier a bottle of drink to which she had added a lethal dose of methadone. She then suggested he drink the ‘gift’ during an online video call.

The SSU acted pre-emptively and intercepted the parcel containing the drink in time. Chemical analysis confirmed the presence of toxic substances in the bottle which could have been fatal.

In January 2026, the SSU Military Counterintelligence detained an FSB hitman who had attempted to stab a Ukrainian soldier to death in Zaporizhzhia.

According to the investigation, the russian intelligence lured a Ukrainian serviceman to an industrial area of the city, pretending to be a girl from a dating website who wanted to meet him for a date.

Instead of her, however, a balaclava-clad hitman appeared and attacked the soldier from behind, stabbing him six times in the neck, chest, abdomen and right leg.

The Security Service detained the attacker and identified the woman, acting on instructions from the FSB, who had been communicating with the victim via a fake account and luring him to the scene of the planned assassination attempt.

Investigations are currently ongoing into these and other facts under several Articles of the CCU:

  • 111 (high treason);
  • 115 (intentional murder);
  • 258 (terrorist act).

The perpetrators face life imprisonment with confiscation of property.

The Security Service of Ukraine urges Ukrainians, including members of the Defence Forces, to remain vigilant. If you are approached with such ‘proposals’, if you see suspicious objects or individuals, or have information about the activities of the russian intelligence services or the websites and social media pages they use for recruitment, please report this to the SSU via: