how Ukraine is trying to combat disinformation from Russia

kyiv must face more and more Russian cyberattacks, particularly against the media or children, through the downloading of suspicious video games. A war that has become almost as crucial as that in the trenches.

A few days before the European elections, the EU is striving to combat disinformation coming from Russia. In Ukraine, this disinformation is daily, particularly on social networks, which are very popular with the population. So much so that this “cyberwar” has become almost as crucial as that taking place in the trenches.

According to Alina Elevterova, a cybersecurity expert in kyiv, attacks in cyberspace started well before the large-scale war, as early as 2014. But over the past two years, obviously, everything has accelerated, with a large-scale attack by the share of Russian hackers every seven minutes. “They primarily target government, energy and military structures. A few months ago, our mobile operator, Kyivstar, was the target of a critical attack.”

“The Russians took out a whole section of the network structure. It took a long time to rebuild something different so that communications could work again.”

Alina Elevterova, cybersecurity expert in kyiv

at franceinfo

Favored target of the Kremlin: the Ukrainian media. Some, like Ukrayinska Pravdawere hacked during the Battle of Avdiïvka last February, and the hackers left this message: “The Ukrainians deserted, the soldiers of Avdiïvka died, no survivors. We lost Avdiïvka forever! Things like that…”says Alina Elevterova.

For Olga Guzhva, cybersecurity expert at Internews Ukraine, vigilance must be constant. “You have to have zero trust in everything. There are no more reliable sources, it no longer exists.” Also wary of online games or games downloaded to your phone.

Near Kharkiv, at the start of the offensive, a ten-year-old child was manipulated by the Russian army: “They asked him to download a gamespecifies Olga Guzhva. It was a kind of combat game, it needed to indicate the position of Ukrainian soldiers or military equipment. For example, he had to go to the center of the village and enter all this information on a map.” This time, it resulted in simple material damage. On TikTok, as on Instagram, Ukrainian children and adolescents have become one of the prime targets of Russian propaganda.