FSB reports detention of ten more Dayvinchik users, eight of them teenagers

The FSB has reported the detention of ten people suspected of preparing or carrying out arson attacks on assignments from Ukrainian intelligence services. According to the agency, eight of them are teenagers aged 14 to 17, and the other two are adults aged 19 and 24.

The detentions, according to the FSB, took place in August and September 2026 in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the Leningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Omsk, Ryazan and Sverdlovsk regions. The suspects are accused of setting fire to cars belonging to security officers, petrol stations, and energy and transport facilities. Some of them, the security services claim, also delivered money taken from defrauded citizens to cryptocurrency exchangers.

The FSB describes the recruitment scheme as follows. Officers of Ukrainian intelligence services, posing as young people, struck up acquaintances with Russians on Dayvinchik; the Russians sent their geolocation, paid for advance orders and followed phishing links. Later, people who introduced themselves as employees of the FSB or Rosfinmonitoring contacted them through foreign messengers. According to the agency, they said the money had gone to the accounts of the Ukrainian armed forces, and that the geolocations would be used for missile strikes or drone attacks.

Next, the FSB claims, the interlocutors threatened criminal prosecution and pushed the targets into arson, supposedly to test the security of facilities. The agency states that the detainees committed the crimes under psychological pressure. Those who have reached the age of criminal responsibility have been charged and had a preventive measure imposed. Given the gravity of the crimes, the FSB said, they face long prison terms.

In total, since July 2025 the FSB has reported detaining 56 Dayvinchik users aged 12 to 24. According to the agency, it works to suppress such activity jointly with the Interior Ministry and the Investigative Committee. Cases, the FSB reported, have been opened for a terrorist act, attempted terrorist act and intentional destruction of property.

The Investigative Committee spoke about four defendants in cases under the article on a terrorist act (Article 205 of the Russian Criminal Code). One of the teenagers is accused of setting fire to petrol stations in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region. Two underage girls in St. Petersburg are accused of setting fire to petrol stations and police cars. All three, according to the Investigative Committee, are under house arrest.

Another defendant, an 18-year-old resident of Vladivostok, is accused by the Investigative Committee of setting fire to a transformer cabinet on the Moscow Railway on 1 October. The court sent him to a pre-trial detention centre. Investigative Committee representative Svetlana Petrenko said that some of the defendants are in custody and some are under house arrest.

In December 2025, Dayvinchik was added to the register of banned websites. On 29 July, the FSB announced charges against Telegram founder Pavel Durov for assisting terrorist activity, linking the case to the messenger's refusal to delete channels, chats and bots that, according to the agency, are used by Ukrainian intelligence services. The FSB named Dayvinchik among them.

In July 2026, the FSB charged Durov under part 1.1 of Article 205.1 of the Russian Criminal Code, and he was put on an international wanted list. The agency claims that Ukrainian intelligence services used the dating bot to recruit Russians for sabotage.

In December 2024, the Security Service of Ukraine launched a Telegram chatbot called "Burn an FSB officer", which can be used by those who are being offered to set fire to military personnel's cars or an administrative building, carry out a terrorist attack or plant explosives.