IMI representative in Rivne receives bomb threats

Hanna Kalaur, the Institute of Mass Information representative in Rivne oblast, received an email from an unknown sender claiming that bombs had been planted in multiple buildings.

This is the fifth such email in the last three months, says Hanna Kalaur.

The sender calls themselves “Yulia Bilyak” and claims to be a combat veteran with a disability who is dissatisfied with the state of affairs in the country, namely with the work of the SBU, the National Police, and the enlistment centers. The sender calls for a rally against the authorities' abuse of power on December 14, 2024 and calls for an "overthrow", announcing a series of terrorist attacks.

The message specifies that the sender has planted bombs in the building where the IMI representative works and in others, including the Kyiv City Clinical Hospital No. 15, the Lviv Polytechnic, the Embassy of Argentina, etc.

Screenshot of the email with bomb threats received by Hanna Kalaur

“I planted a bomb in your building, there is a makeshift explosive device in your building, I will activate it remotely within 5 days. [...] I spent 2 weeks planting explosive devices in different oblasts and buildings across Ukraine and will detonate them once every 5 days. They were abandoned,” the threatening email says.

The message contains several other demands and intimidating statements, as well as a thank you to the drug cartel Khimprom and other hacker organizations that allegedly helped organize the terrorist attacks. The sender closes the email by calling on the receivers to join their initiative by clicking on dubious links that may be phishing.

As the IMI reported, Ukrainian media outlets and government bodies across the country have been receiving bomb threats en masse since October 2024. There have been several such waves so far. Ukrainian police and media professionals assume that Russia is involved in creating the messages, seeking to destabilize the situation in Ukraine in this way.