FSB blackmailed Ukrainian volunteer: 'We will kill your son'
Mykhailo Puryshev claims the Russian security service tried to force him to cooperate by threatening to kill his son or send him to the front, so he traveled to Russia to protect him.
Mykhailo Puryshev claims the Russian security service tried to force him to cooperate by threatening to kill his son or send him to the front, so he traveled to Russia to protect him.
Prominent Ukrainian volunteer Mykhailo Puryshev announced on Monday, August 17, 2026, that the Russian security service FSB had blackmailed him with threats to kill his son or send him to the front under Russian flags. Puryshev, originally from occupied Mariupol, shared his experiences via social media, posting videos describing the pressures he faced.
According to his account, the FSB offered him two options. "There are two options. The first option is that I am friends with (the FSB), they help my son, they don't touch my son, he is fine. But I betray my country and my children. The second option is that I don't cooperate with them, and they will simply kill my son," Puryshev wrote in a social media post.
The volunteer, who has four children in total, chose a third path. Two of his children live in Ukraine, while two live in Russia with his ex-wife. "I decided that for me there is a third option. That is simply to go there. When I am with them, I can do anything. But my son will live," he said.
Puryshev also posted on social media a recording of a conversation with a person he claims is a Russian agent, who called him from his son's phone number. The agent allegedly told him: "You must prevent your child from joining the (Russian) army. Imagine a situation where the guys you are now helping will, at some point, be standing on the opposite side of your son in a trench."
After that, Puryshev posted a second video with a caption in English: "I have arrived in Russia for the sake of my son."
Puryshev is known for his work evacuating Ukrainian civilians from Mariupol in the early days of the Russian invasion, as well as for his continued volunteer work in communities near the front line. During the first year of the war, he worked to provide internet, television, and food in Bakhmut, as documented by a photo by Andre Luis Alves of the Anadolu agency, taken on December 16, 2022.
The Puryshev case is an example of the pressure that Russian services, according to Ukrainian activists, exert on humanitarians and volunteers who help the Ukrainian side in the war.
