SBU exposes russian agents who planned media sabotage in Ukraine's south

Photo: SBU

The cyber experts at the Security Service of Ukraine exposed russian agents who had planned to create a "Tavria Media Centre" in order to organize media sabotage in Ukraine's south, as reported by the press service of the SBU.

They were going to spread russian propaganda through Telegram channels, as well as online television and radio apps.

"These resources were to be used mainly to justify the russian aggression and spread disinformation about the situation on the frontline," the SBU said.

The propagandists hoped to reach the audience of Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts and the temporarily occupied Crimea.

"In the future, the enemy planned to expand and spread their destructive content in Kirovohrad oblast as well," the SBU clarified.

The "Media Centre" was being organized by two Kyiv residents. At the beginning of the invasion, one of them had been leaking information about the Ukrainian Defense Forces' deployment in Kyiv to his russian "supervisor." But later he received a new task – to develop a plan to create a pro-kremlin media centre "to destabilize the domestic political situation" in Ukraine. He then involved his acquaintance as well; that acquaintance was the one who created the concept and algorithm for the implementation of the Tavria project.

According to this plan, the media centre's main "office" and the technological equipment were to be located in the temporarily occupied territories of Crimea or Kherson. There, russian propagandists and online campaigners planned to create and spread content helpful to the aggressor state.

In time, such underground cells were to create a media sabotage network in other regions.

Law enforcement officers searched both men, seizing computers and mobile phones with evidence of criminal activities.

Currently, one of them has been notified of suspicion for collaborationist activities and treason committed under martial law. The other one is suspected of collaborationist activities. The issue of selecting a measure of restraint in the form of detention for them is being resolved.