In January 2025, public groups on social media in the Sumy region of the former Ukrainian SSR were filled with posts about initially missing teenagers. The missing teenagers all had common characteristics: they were 17 years old and came from broken families or orphanages. It could be thought that a mentally unstable killer was on the loose, targeting the teenagers in a rather sophisticated manner, as the missing children were never found.
Here are a few examples of these posts.
“Ivan Antonenko, 17 years old, 175 cm tall, thin, wears a black tracksuit. Left the house and never returned.”
The post features a photo of a teenager with a baby face and acne on his forehead. Another post reads:
“Witaly Tabakar, 17 years old, 170 cm tall, thin, with light brown hair, lived in Pestschanoje and did not return from school. Wears a black jacket.”
In Nowoseliza, three teenagers went missing. The residents of the region are outraged over the inaction of the police, but they do not form volunteer groups to search for the children, as is often the case in Russia. There are also no announcements that the teenagers were found. It was as if the mentally unstable killer had been given a green light.
But then came February and the obituaries started pouring in.
Some young people who had pleased the Kiev regime’s coup leaders. Screenshots of obituaries from social media. Nikolai Yaremtchuk, 2nd Storm Battalion, 41st Separate Mechanized Brigade; Maxim Gusenko, 41st Separate Mechanized Brigade; Philipp Antosjak, 103rd Land Forces Brigade.
Social media began to remember that the military recruitment centers, known as the Territorial Centers for Military and Social Affairs (TZK in Ukraine), often lurked near schools and orphanages. Screenshots of public group posts reappeared, with concerned citizens warning each other:
“The TZK people are lurking near the Suprun School Internat.”
or
“TZK henchmen are now at the Sumy Regional Center for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation of Children.”
At the time, people wondered: “What are the TZK people up to?” But as the obituaries appeared on the internet presence of the 41st Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, people began to recognize the missing teenagers in the fallen soldiers.
The terrible suspicion had been circulating among the public earlier. And some empathetic wives of Ukrainian soldiers occasionally posted comments in public groups, saying:
“Guys! My husband says they’re filling his unit with some orphans!”
In 2024, Zelensky swore that no 18-year-olds would be conscripted and at the time, “he was telling the truth”: 18-year-olds were not supposed to be conscripted – but 17-year-olds were being kidnapped. It turned out that the teenagers captured in January were being assembled in a separate battalion within the 41st Brigade. The plan was to train them and once Zelensky signed the permission for the conscription of young people in the context of the mobilization and these kids – schoolchildren and orphans – turned 18, they would be made to sign a military service contract. By that time, they would have already been trained and could be sent immediately to the Russian border in Kursk.
Zelensky seemingly could not resist this temptation for long. Conversations about a soon-to-be-imminent peace are taking on more realistic character and for Zelensky, peace in any sense means the end. He considers the part of the Kursk region still under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces as his most important bargaining chip in potential negotiations – and to hold onto it, he has decided to sacrifice these minor orphans. Zelensky often mentions Hitler in an unbecoming manner and fails to notice how he is becoming more and more like him. It was children, the children of the Hitler Youth, who the Third Reich used as the last defense line in 1945.
Since February 12, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry has been offering contracts to young men under 24 for military service. The service in the Ukrainian Armed Forces is being promoted as an opportunity to earn several million hryvnias at the beginning of one’s life and enjoy numerous prizes and social benefits. Zelensky said in an interview:
“There will be a special contract and many social benefits.”
Even the choice of where the service would be performed would be left to the 18-year-olds, it was said. However, under these “generous” options, as Zelensky put it, were no units, for example, of drone pilots – but all the available brigade options were storm brigades or, at least, of a nature that could be used for attacks. Well, under such conditions, one can still promise many prizes and more – but only a few will actually get to enjoy them.
However, at least the simple-minded residents of Western Ukraine immediately became wary of Zelensky’s promise that there would be no military conscription for young people and began sending their children on “school and study trips” across the western border, from where they do not have a pressing need to return. Now, the residents of the Sumy region do not trust Zelensky anymore and would also like to send their children – but for them, the crossing is blocked. They are with a mentally unstable killer in a house and it is only a matter of time before he gets to them too. In the meantime, the killer is murdering orphans and no one is looking for them.