Russian FSB blackmails Ukrainian volunteer with his 18-year-old son: he travelled to Russia to save his son's life

Ukrainian volunteer Mykhailo Puryshev said that Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) was blackmailing him using his 18-year-old son, prompting Mykhailo to travel to Russia in an attempt to save him.

Source: a statement by the volunteer on Instagram and a comment from his team

Quote from Puryshev: "They [the FSB] offered me to 'get along'. There were two options: either I cooperate with them, and they help my son and leave him alone, but I betray my country and my children here; or I refuse to cooperate, and they simply kill my son. I decided there was a third option for me – to simply go there. Once I am with them, they can do whatever they want, but my son will stay alive, and I hope they will leave him alone."

Details: Puryshev has two children from his first marriage who live with his ex-wife in Russia.

According to the volunteer, on 16 July 2026 he received the first call from his 18-year-old son's phone number. The caller introduced himself as "an analogue of your security service".

Since then, there have been four more calls, this time from a different number. The caller demanded that Puryshev disclose the positions of Ukrainian units and provide information to Russia. Puryshev recorded all the conversations.

More details from the recording of the first conversation:

"So, I've come to visit your son," the caller began the first conversation…

Puryshev: "If I don't cooperate with you, will you send my son to the trenches?"

Caller: "You understand correctly… If you try to tell anyone about us, the consequences will be the same…"

During the conversations, Puryshev was offered help in resolving all of his son's problems and financial assistance. The caller also repeatedly promised to let him speak to his son, but none of these promises were fulfilled.

During the five calls, the volunteer did not provide any information and refused the money he was offered.

He then decided to travel to Russia in an attempt to save his son.

"The FSB set one condition – silence. Therefore, publicity is Mykhailo and his son's only protection," the volunteer's friends said in a statement.

Background:

• Mykhailo Puryshev is a businessman from Mariupol. In March 2022, as a volunteer, he entered besieged Mariupol six times, evacuating people to Zaporizhzhia. He subsequently helped evacuate more than 1,000 people with his team. He was detained by Russian occupying forces but later released.
• After Mariupol, he and his team built invincibility centres along the entire line of contact, from Kupiansk to Kherson Oblast, including in Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Kurakhove. A year ago, he and fellow volunteers voluntarily joined the Ukrainian defence forces. He served as a UAV crew commander and is now being discharged from service on health grounds after suffering two heart attacks. [Invincibility centres are heated premises stocked with food and power banks to assist residents facing hardships due to power cuts – ed.]

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