All things considered, the reward that Russia allegedly offered Daniil Bardadim to betray his country was pretty meagre: $11,000 (£8,000) in cash and a second-hand BMW.
The Ukrainian, 17, was presented with the promise of quick cash and a luxury car by his Russian handlers, who wanted him to burn down a branch of Ikea in Lithuania.
Bardadim, who was living in Poland as a refugee, apparently felt the offer was too good to pass up. Lithuanian prosecutors allege that he crossed into their country and set the store ablaze, in May 2024.
The Kremlin is no stranger to recruiting criminals and opportunists to carry out its dirty work, offering rewards of cash or luxury goods via encrypted messenger apps.
But the case of Bardadim – and the arrests this week of three Ukrainians in Germany and Switzerland on charges of plotting to firebomb Europe’s postal network – underline how Moscow revels in trying to recruit people from its sworn foe as secret agents.
Bardadim was arrested after the blaze in Vilnius by Lithuanian authorities. They have since charged him with terrorism offences, while Poland has arrested an alleged accomplice of his, also Ukrainian.
Daniil Bardadim has been charged with terrorism offences after he allegedly tried to burn down an Ikea in Lithuania
As with many other cases of Russian sabotage across Europe, those who commit such attacks face long jail sentences – but the masterminds are hundreds of miles away in Moscow.
European security sources say the use of these so-called “disposable” agents is on the rise, as Russia wages a hybrid-war campaign on Europe targeting military sites, defence industry factories and undersea cables.
In Germany, the process has been dubbed “the gig economy of sabotage”, due to the Russian handlers’ use of messenger apps on mobile phones.
But it is the use of Ukrainians, Russia’s foes, which is particularly shocking, with military experts saying that is very much part of the Kremlin’s strategy.
“These are absolutely classic Russian espionage tactics,” Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a security analyst and former British Army tank commander, said.
“An agent like this can go under the radar [due to their nationality], but the impact of what they do is also doubled: it creates a huge reaction from the Western public and the press, who will be shocked that it was a Ukrainian. And it allows the Russian press to claim that Ukrainians don’t really support the West and are trying to attack them.”
The Kremlin does not just offer cash rewards, he added, and sometimes resorts to blackmail, such as threatening family members.
“There’s really nothing off limits for the Russians if they want to achieve something – whether it’s cash, a flashy car, sex or drugs,” he said.
In Ukraine itself, pro-Russian saboteurs have been a major concern since Russia’s initial invasion of 2014 and annexation of Crimea. Teenagers are said to be a particularly easy target for Russian spymasters to groom over social media.
SBU warns parents of Russian tactics
Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service has sent out warning letters to parents, underlining the risk that Russian agents could be trying to reach out to their children via mobile phones.
“Dear parents, let’s imagine a very real situation. Your child is sitting on his phone – as usual. And suddenly a stranger writes to him: “Hello, do you want to earn five thousand [Ukrainian] hryvnias?” states one such letter seen by The Telegraph.
It goes on to explain how Russian-hired teenagers in Ukraine will at first be asked to carry out a minor task, such as taking a photograph of a building or drawing graffiti. Then, the tasks slowly and inexorably become more serious, culminating in a plot to sabotage railway lines or switchboards.
By that point, the letter warns, “unfortunately, not all [children] have time to understand that they have become victims”.
Ukrainian security forces have warned parents that Russian agents could be trying to reach out to their children via mobile phones
Ukrainian authorities say they have thwarted a string of attacks of this nature, such as a plot in April which relied on teenagers to plant explosives at Ukrainian military sites.
In December, Russian agents tried to hire a teenager to carry out an unwitting suicide bombing against a Ukrainian military facility in Kyiv Oblast. The bomb was built by two women from Vinnytsia Oblast, and the teenager who was asked to transport it had no idea it would self-detonate. According to Defence Blog, Ukrainian security forces thwarted the operation before the bomb was detonated.
In another case, in March this year, two teenagers aged 15 and 17 were hired by Russian spies to build an improvised explosive device. As they were delivering the device, their Russian handler remotely detonated it. The blast killed the 17-year-old instantly and hospitalised the 15-year-old with severe injuries.
In March two Ukrainian teenagers were hired by Moscow to build a bomb which a Russian handler remotely detonated
While the promise of fast cash might be attractive to some youngsters, there is a sting in the tale of Bardadim, the teenager accused of being behind the Ikea fire in Lithuania.
According to the New York Times, which first reported the full details of the plot, Russia did follow through with payment of the BMW, handed over prior to the attack.
But the other half of Bardadim’s payment – the $11,000 US dollars – never materialised.