A group of Ukrainian hackers is developing quite the reputation for enacting a unique brand of vigilante justice on Russian military men involved in Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.
The volunteer ‘hacktivism’ organisation, Inform Napalm, was formed in 2014 in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, initially to expose the military takeover of the peninsula.
Since Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the 30-strong group of crowdfunded hackers have turned their efforts to making life hell for the Russian invaders.
They developed a technique for identifying and geo-locating Russian armoured columns, which the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said has proven invaluable in destroying huge numbers of tanks and armoured vehicles.
But they also delight in exposing specific individuals and regiments in a devastatingly personal fashion.
In one such operation, the hacktivists managed to uncover the identity of the Russian aviation commander behind the bombing of the theatre in Mariupol – an atrocity in which hundreds of civilians died – and tricked his wife into revealing sultry snaps of herself and other officers’ partners.
Colonel Sergei Atroshchenko – commander of the 980th Assault Aviation Regiment – ordered a pair of warplanes to drop two 500kg bombs on Mariupol’s theatre on March 16, 2022.
Having learned Atroshchenko’s personal details, the hacktivists then posed as an officer from his regiment and asked his wife Lilia to organise a ‘patriotic photoshoot’ of wives and girlfriends for their men on the frontlines.
On March 16, 2023 – exactly one year to the day that her husband is said to have ordered the heinous bombing of the Mariupol theatre – she duly obliged.
Lilia provided the hacktivists with a stunning reel of images showing 12 wives posing in their husbands’ uniforms, giving the hackers all the information they needed to identify several more Russian commanders they believe are behind the attacks on Mariupol – along with a trove of NSFW pictures.
Colonel Sergei Atroshchenko, of Russia’s 960th Assault Aviation Regiment, is believed to have given the order to a pair of Russian warplanes to bomb Mariupol’s theatre on March 16, 2022
The hackers posted several intimate images that Lilia Atroshchenko had sent to her husband
Lilia sent the hackers dozens of images from a photoshoot of Russian commanders’ wives and girlfriends
Lilia organised for a group of wives and girlfriends to pose with their husbands’ uniforms, giving away their identities. She also sent various images of Russian planes, as well as NSFW images
The photoshoot organised by Lilia saw 12 different women dress up in their husbands’ uniforms, giving Ukrainian sleuths the opportunity to identify them
Hundreds were killed when Russian warplanes bombed the theatre in Mariupol
A view shows the building of a theatre destroyed in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol
Inform Napalm revealed that Atroshchenko was born in the Ukrainian town of Ovruch, in the Zhytomyr region, before moving to Lipetsk in Russia and registering in Voronezh.
He later served in the military in occupied Crimea before moving to the southern Russian city of Primorsko-Akhtarsk, just three miles away from the airbase where his regiment is stationed.
Hackers also said the Ukrainian-born Atroshchenko personally gave orders for warplanes to launch attacks on other civilian targets, including Mariupol’s maternity hospital.
They released a torrent of the commander’s personal information including private contact details and salary, sensitive details such as lists of the pilots under his command and their performance evaluations, and various ‘theoretical and practical’ details of missions which they delivered to Ukraine’s intelligence services for analysis.
Just two days after the hackers received the images from Lilia, Atroshchenko’s regiment was awarded honours as part of an executive order signed by President Putin.
The regiment was elevated to the honorary title of ‘guards’ for their ‘mass heroism and valour, fortitude and courage in combat operations to protect the Fatherland’, according to the decree.
Inform Napalm claimed hackers had sent details they had obtained on Atroshchenko to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to contribute to the ongoing investigation into Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
It came as the Biden administration announced it would offer support for the creation of a tribunal dedicated to uncovering and prosecuting war crimes.
Hackers also said the Ukrainian-born Atroshchenko, 42, personally gave orders for warplanes to launch attacks on other civilian targets, including Mariupol’s maternity hospital
Inform Napalm released images of Atroshchenko’s personal details, including his military registration document and his registration in the Russian city of Voronezh. Atroshchenko was born in Zhytomyr in Ukraine
The hackers accessed Atroshchenko’s personal accounts and learned the identities of his regiment and their families
The hackers were also able to find a series of images and videos of Russian warplanes, as well as sensitive documents, on Atroshchenko’s accounts
In a more recent operation, Inform Napalm got the commander of a Russian artillery unit suspended after sending doctored hospital records to his wife in St. Petersburg, tricking her into believing he had contracted HIV in Ukraine.
Believing he had been cheating on her with women in Ukraine, the enraged spouse went to the superior officers of her husband – who in fact had been diagnosed with nothing more than high blood pressure – and they suspended him from duty pending an investigation, pulling him away from the frontlines.
‘In the end they suspended him for four months, four months in which he wasn’t killing Ukrainians,’ said Mykhailo Makaruk, 36, a member of InformNapalm.
‘It was more effective than if we’d wounded him,’ he told The Times’.
‘We’ve caused (the Russians) quite a lot of trouble over the years.’
Makaruk said the group is focused primarily on identifying the Russian units and commanders involved in military operations in Ukraine.
But he added the team intends to continue their work long after the war is over to contribute to investigations into war crimes and their prosecution.
‘It’s our job to find all of those who committed war crimes and crimes against humanity — and bring them to justice,’ he said.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk