Russian intelligence services are increasingly using fake female profiles on dating apps and messaging platforms to lure Ukrainian military personnel into ambushes and assassination attempts, according to a report citing Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU).
According to the report, operatives set up fraudulent dating accounts to build rapport with Ukrainian service members before arranging in-person meetings at locations chosen in advance, where attacks are then allegedly carried out. The SBU says the tactics have included explosive devices left at meeting points, poisoned food or drink, and direct assaults by suspected Russian agents. Ukrainian military counterintelligence says it has broken up more than 50 such plots since the start of the year, and several criminal cases are underway on charges that include treason, premeditated murder and terrorism.
Among the cases cited by the SBU, a soldier was allegedly drawn to an industrial site in Zaporizhzhia in January 2026 expecting to meet a woman he had been messaging online, only to be attacked by a knife-wielding assailant; the attacker was arrested soon after, and investigators later identified the woman who had been in contact with him as allegedly working on behalf of Russia’s FSB. In a separate case, investigators say they intercepted a parcel containing a drink laced with a lethal dose of methadone before it reached the intended soldier, who had reportedly been told to drink it during an online video call. A third case, dating to March last year, involved a suspected FSB agent arrested in the Kharkiv region after allegedly posing as a volunteer and delivering poisoned food and medicine to a Ukrainian soldier.
Honey-trap style operations have a long history in espionage, but the war in Ukraine has given the tactic a distinctly modern form, blending old tradecraft with dating apps, messaging platforms and video calls that let an operative build a relationship with a target from a safe distance before an attack. Ukrainian officials have periodically warned troops to be cautious about unsolicited online contacts, and the steady stream of disrupted plots reported by the SBU suggests both that the tactic remains a live threat and that Ukrainian counterintelligence has adapted to watch for it. The reports add to a long list of unconventional methods, from drone strikes to sabotage, that both sides have used against personnel well away from the front line during the war.