Russian FSB Hunts Ukrainian Soldiers with Poisoned Whisky
Mykyta Orlikivskyi (23) thought he had found love, but became the victim of a sophisticated Russian intelligence operation. The SBU has foiled 50 similar assassination attempts this year.
Mykyta Orlikivskyi (23) thought he had found love, but became the victim of a sophisticated Russian intelligence operation. The SBU has foiled 50 similar assassination attempts this year.
The story of 23-year-old Ukrainian soldier Mykyta Orlikivskyi reveals a dark and increasingly prevalent tactic used by Russian intelligence services: the use of fake romantic relationships, known as "honeytraps," to eliminate Ukrainian soldiers hundreds of kilometers from the front lines.
Orlikivskyi died on June 9, 2026, in a hospital in Zhytomyr, six days after his aunt, Tetiana Apalko (53), found him unconscious on the balcony of his apartment. At first glance, everything pointed to suicide or an overdose, but the investigation uncovered a meticulously planned FSB operation in which a woman he had fallen in love with played a key role.
It all began in April 2026 when an unknown woman contacted him via the Telegram app. She claimed she had seen him on a dating app and asked if it was him. Although Orlikivskyi did not have a profile there, flattered by the attention, he continued the conversation. Soon they were exchanging messages and photos.
When she asked if he was a soldier, he sent her a photo of himself in uniform with a New Zealand flag patch, taken in early 2024 during military training in the United Kingdom. "For Russian security services, that was proof he was indeed a soldier. They needed nothing more," Apalko told The Times.
The woman, saved in his phone as "Родная" (Russian for "dear"), built a convincing story. She presented herself as a 30-year-old from Kharkiv whose apartment had been shelled. She sent him photos altered with artificial intelligence. For two months they talked via messages and video calls, and Apalko noticed a positive change in her nephew. "She seemed to have a good influence on him," she recalled.
At the end of May, they arranged to meet, but the woman postponed at the last minute and promised to send a gift instead. On Wednesday, June 3, 2026, Apalko received a call from a woman claiming to be a service member who warned her that her nephew might be dead. Breaking into the apartment, she found him unconscious. "We rushed in. He was sitting on the balcony, already unconscious, and I started screaming," she recounted.
Although she initially thought he had poisoned himself, Orlikivskyi did not use drugs. A message he sent to a friend just before he fell ill revealed the truth: "What is this? I only drank three shots and... I'm dead." He died on Tuesday, June 9, around six in the morning.
Investigators soon discovered it was an FSB operation. According to the investigation's findings, the woman from Kharkiv did not personally send the poisoned whisky. Instead, she recruited a 19-year-old from Poltava via Telegram, promising him 5,000 hryvnias (about 100 euros) to inject poison into the bottle and send it to Orlikivskyi. "A human life for 5,000 hryvnias. If only he had called me. I would have given him 10,000 right away," Apalko said.
It is believed the woman was not communicating from Kharkiv but from the Donetsk region, and investigators suspect she was a captive. This method is not an isolated case. The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) reported a "significant increase in attempts by Russian special services to eliminate Ukrainian soldiers using the so-called 'honeytrap' method." This year alone, they have foiled 50 such attempts.
In January 2026, a woman in Zaporizhzhia lured a soldier to a date in an industrial zone where a masked man stabbed him six times. The same month, two teenagers were accused of poisoning a soldier with methadone, filming his death for an FSB handler. In April, a 26-year-old woman from Zaporizhzhia poisoned a soldier in Uzhhorod and tried to make the death look natural, for a promised $3,000.
Senior investigator of the Zhytomyr police, Oleh Lakiziuk, described one of the cases: "In one bottle, the girl put methadone." Orlikivskyi, who lost his mother at 14 and his father a few years later, was on leave and sorting out paperwork to leave the army to care for his sick grandmother. His aunt believes his orphan status made him an easy target. "His whole life was ahead of him. He always wanted to have children. It's all so cynical. How could she declare her love to him... all the while knowing she would kill him?" she concluded.
