Russian propagandists try to destabilize Ukraine through teenage “fight club” movement — National Police of Ukraine 

He spoke about this on Espreso TV. 

"In late February 2023, the National Police discovered the activity of a new youth movement on the Internet that aims to provoke conflicts and mass fights. The law enforcement officers immediately reacted and started processing information. It was established that information was spread by administrators in social networks and newly created Telegram channels, urging young people to hold mass gatherings with the aim of physically confronting each other. The primary inspection showed that such artificial development of the subculture is a Russian propagandists’ attempt to carry out another informational and psychological operation and use children to destabilize the domestic situation in Ukraine,” Shanko said. 

Yaroslav Shanko noted that this is evidenced by the fact that the first incident took place on February 22 2023 in Moscow; two teenagers died as a result. After this, Russian special services started using this situation as a model for provocations and riots in Ukraine.

"Over the course of two days, about 30 gatherings of young people took place in different regions of Ukraine. The police acted promptly and prevented clashes. Also, during this period, police have been conducting preventive training with more than 700 people, most of whom are minors, as well as with their parents. Police have already blocked almost 20 Telegram channels of this kind, created in order to destabilize the situation in Ukraine. Now operational services and the cyber police are establishing sources of funding and creators of such information channels," he said. 

Shanko noted that in order to prevent the enemy from carrying out this operation successfully and to warn the children, police have been informing school administrations and teachers about it. The key thing is for parents to be friends with their children, to be interested in what they do, who they talk to, and how they spend their leisure time.  

• Russian Redan movement of mass fighting is spreading in Ukraine