How Ukrainians are using fake dating profiles to scam gullible Russians out of thousands of pounds to help pay for war

Ukrainian scammers are using fake dating profiles to swindle thousands of pounds from gullible Russian men to help fund their nation's war effort. 

The group,known as the Monetary Army,use a range of tactics to trick Russian soldiers,cops and military academy students,among other professions,into handing over up to £19,000. 

The roughly 100 scammers match with men on Divinchik,a common dating app in Russia,with fake profiles made with the pictures of beautiful women. 

Arthur,a Monetary Army scammer,told the Telegraph that once they match with Russian men,their aim is to get them to buy tickets for fake events. 

'During the dialogue when the case comes to the meeting,my task is to invite men to one of the events that we have on a fake home site. 

'For example,to the theatre,stand-up comedy show,ballet,or cinema. And then the man never meets the woman.' 

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Defence Minister Rustem Umerov listen to Commander of the Ground Forces colonel general Oleksandr Syrskyi as they visit a position of Ukrainian servicemen in the town of Kupiansk

While part of the money goes to the Ukrainian army,most of it goes to pay staff. Arthur said he makes around £1,600 a month from the job. 

But the Ukrainian army will take whatever money it can get,given the state of the war,now in its 28th month. 

Russian shelling of Ukraine killed four people on Saturday,officials said,as the two countries exchanged drone attacks,one of which set ablaze a Russian oil depot.

Two people died in Ukraine's partly occupied Kherson region and two were wounded in the attack close to the regional capital,said Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin. 

Two other people died Saturday afternoon and 22 were wounded in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region,according to Gov. Oleh Syniehubov.

An oil depot in the Tsimlyansky district,deep inside Russia's southwestern Rostov region,was set ablaze in the early hours of Saturday following a Ukrainian drone attack - the latest long-range strike by Kyiv's forces on a border region.

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