Chernivtsi journalist receives bomb threats

Chernivtsi-based journalist Maria Bodnarashek (news outlet "0372") received an email with bomb threats, similar to those received by multiple other media and journalists, the 0372 communications manager Anna Sotska reports to the Institute of Mass Information representative in Chernivtsi oblast, Alyona Chorniy.

According to her, the email seems to have been automatically translated and says that the building has been mined and could be blown up shortly. The sender mentions that the "terrorist group Fire Cells Group" is to blame for the terrorism.

"Good afternoon, we received information about a possible terrorism threat which may pose a danger to your life. I told you that you will not inspect the house well, soon I will activate the explosive device!! It was in the ceiling! Allah akbar!", the email said.

In the comment to the IMI representative, Maria Bodnarashek said that she was not scared upon receiving the bomb warning because she was busy and did not know about the identical messages that arrived to other newsrooms. The team responded to the email by contacting the police.

"Despite the fact that similar letters have already been sent to other journalists, we played it safe and called the police. They told us that there had been a lot of such emails and they were also sent to the police every now and then. Everything is being checked and nothing has been confirmed," said Anna Sotska.

Earlier, the police checked all the buildings where bombs were said to have been planted on October 14. The vast majority of these threats came from Russian IP addresses.

The bomb threat emails

On October 14, multiple Ukrainian media outlets received bomb warnings to their corporate inboxes: the Suspilne Cherkasy team, the online news outlet "Pershyi Kryvorizkyi", the International Multimedia Broadcasting Platform of Ukraine, the "Syla Pravdy" journalist Valentyna Kuts, Suspilne Rivne, Khmelnytskyi-based journalist The ZMINA Center for Human Rights and the Museum of Ukraine's History in the Second World War, LIGA.net journalist Volodymyr Fomichov, several other Suspilne branches, "Detector Media", "Ukrainska Pravda" also received warnings about bombs planted in their buildings.

The letters list the Ukrainian journalists whom the sender blames for the possible bombings. The sender asks to place all responsibility on "the terrorist group Fire Cells Group".

The journalists in question are Iryna Sysak, Valeria Yehoshyna, and Yulia Khymeryk, who are the authors of the Radio Liberty investigation into the FSB's recruitment of Ukrainian children to set fire to UAF cars, released on October 8.

The National Police says that Russia may be behind the bomb warnings, aiming to destabilize the situation in Ukraine's regions.

The Radio Liberty project "Skhemy" found a person whose identity matches that of the sender of the bomb threat letters to public organizations and media professionals. This person lives in occupied Crimea and owns a Russian passport.