Prosecutors allege that two underage girls poisoned a soldier with drugs in Kharkiv. The murder was filmed for a Russian curator

In Kharkiv, two underage girls are suspected of poisoning a serviceman under the direction of a Russian curator. The Russian promised them $5 000 for the murder.

This was reported by the head of the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutorʼs Office Yuriy Papusha in an interview with Ukrinform.

At the end of last year, one of the girls received an offer via Telegram from a Russian handler to kill a National Guard serviceman for $5 000. She accepted the offer and decided to involve her friend. According to Papush, in February 2026, the girls invited the serviceman to “rest” at a hotel. They had received methadone (a narcotic substance) in advance from the customer and, according to instructions, mixed it with vodka, which they gave to the serviceman.

The Russian supervisor, who was watching via video link, then ordered the soldier to be strangled. One of the girls put a plastic bag over the soldierʼs head, then covered his face with a pillow and held it down. However, according to the investigation, the man died before that.

The girls filmed everything and destroyed the drug packaging to cover their tracks. They are now in custody and admit to the murder.

• The head of the National Police Ivan Vyhivskyi previously noted that the Russians have begun actively recruiting underage girls via Telegram to kill Ukrainian soldiers. Since the beginning of 2026, law enforcement officers have already recorded 6 such contract killings organized via messengers.
• One such case occurred in early June in the Zhytomyr region. A 17-year-old girl met a military man, met with him, and spiked his alcohol with methadone — the man died. A similar case occurred in April in Transcarpathia.

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