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Security Service busts ‘million-bot’ farm used to discredit Ukrainian leadership, media allege Poroshenko’s involvement

August 2nd 2022

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) exposed a massive bot farm suspected of spreading disinformation about the Ukrainian government and fake news about the situation on the front line, allegedly with the help of a lawmaker who is “a part of the close circle of the former leadership of the state.” The SBU statement does not name any particular political party or lawmakers in its statement published on Aug. 2. But the Ukrainiska Pravda media outlet and the Interfax Ukraine news agency reported that, according to their sources in law enforcement, the lawmaker in question is from the European Solidarity Party, which is led by former President Petro Poroshenko. Lawmakers in Poroshenko’s party swiftly denied any involvement. According to the SBU, the suspects used over one million fake online accounts, or so-called bots, and social media networks with an audience of over 400,000 users to distribute content about Ukraine’s leadership in an effort to “destabilize the socio-political situation” in the country. Among the suspects’ latest disinformation campaigns was the alleged conflict between the President’s Office and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Lieutenant General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, as well as information aimed at discrediting First Lady Olena Zelenska, the SBU said. 

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Kosovo delays plan for volatile north as tensions rise near Serbian border

July 31st 2022

The Kosovo government postponed implementation of a decision that would oblige Serbs in the north of the country to apply for car license plates issued by Pristina institutions after tensions rose between police and local communities. Late on Sunday protesters parked trucks filled with gravel and other heavy machinery on roads leading to two border crossings, Jarinje and Bernjak, in a territory where Serbs form a majority. Kosovo police said they had to close the border crossings. “The overall security situation in the Northern municipalities of Kosovo is tense,” Nato-led mission to Kosovo KFOR said in a statement. The statement said KFOR was “monitoring closely” and “prepared to intervene if stability is jeopardised”. In Moscow, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova blamed the heightened tension on what she called “groundless discriminatory rules” imposed by Kosovo authorities

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Russians murder agricultural tycoon Vadaturskyi, his wife in attack on Mykolaiv

July 31st 2022

Early in the morning on July 31, a leading figure in Ukraine’s agribusiness, tycoon Oleksiy Vadaturskyi, and his wife Raisa Vadaturska were killed by a Russian strike on the southern city of Mykolaiv. The 74-year-old businessman was the founder of Nibulon, one of Ukraine’s largest agricultural holdings, specializing in the production and export of a variety of products, including grain, wheat, and corn. In 2021, Vadaturskyi’s net worth was $430 million, according to Forbes Ukraine. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Office, said Russia had deliberately targeted the businessman. “In my opinion, the death of Oleksiy Vadaturskyi was not an accident, but a thought-out deliberate murder,” he said. According to Podolyak, the Russian missile struck the bedroom of Vadaturskyi’s house, indicating that the attack was a premeditated assassination.  Videos from the scene show the strike hit precisely the wing where the couple’s bedroom was. Their house was the only building in the neighborhood hit by a Russian rocket.

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Volodymyr Zelenskiy orders evacuation of Donetsk region

July 30th 2022

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called for the evacuation of the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, which has seen fierce clashes between his country’s forces and the Russian military. The governor of Donetsk, where Moscow is focusing the brunt of its offensive, said that six civilians were killed and 15 wounded by strikes on Friday. “There’s already a governmental decision about obligatory evacuation from Donetsk region,” the Ukrainian president said in his daily address. “Please, follow evacuation. At this phase of the war, terror is a main weapon of Russia.” Zelenskiy warned that thousands of people, including children, were still in the battleground areas of the Donetsk region.

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Tracking the Faceless Killers who Mutilated and Executed a Ukrainian POW

August 5th 2022

On July 28, a series of horrifying videos circulated on pro-Russian social media which depicted an act of sexual violence and execution of what appeared to be a Ukrainian prisoner of war. Bellingcat has not linked to these videos due to their extremely graphic nature. The three videos (hereafter ‘the violent videos’) were initially posted on a Russian telegram channel whose name translates as ‘Cargo 200, death to Ukrainians’, which extolls casualties among Ukrainian armed forces. The videos were subsequently reposted on the popular Rosich Telegram channel run by a nationalist Russian mercenary group. The videos were initially celebrated by the channel administrators and most of the commenting users, until several hours later they were suddenly disowned by the same as “likely forgeries”, allegedly planted in the pro-Russian channels by agents of Ukraine aiming to discredit the Russian army. A description of the act in the videos, which each show a part of the same sequence of events, follows in the closed drop-down box below.

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Horrifying footage appears to show Russian captors castrating a Ukrainian prisoner of war

July 28th 2022

A horrific video posted online on Thursday appears to show a Ukrainian prisoner of war being castrated by his Russian captors. While Yahoo News cannot independently verify the authenticity of the video, the footage, which was initially posted on a pro-Russian Telegram page before spreading rapidly on social media, showed what appears to be a Russian soldier or mercenary wearing a distinctive black fringed hat, mutilating a man who appears to be a captured Ukrainian soldier. The victim in the video wears Ukrainian-style camouflage fatigues and is shown gagged, his hands tied behind his back. He lies helpless on the floor, as the man in a Russian uniform, which features a “Z” patch, uses a box cutter to cut off his clothes and then appears to castrate him while shouting degrading insults in Russian. At least two other men who appear to be Russian soldiers can be seen in the video.