Ukrainian journalist receives an anonymous text message wishing her "more Shaheds at night and more rocket strikes on power plants"

Iryna Romaliyska, a journalist and host at the TV channel "Nastoyashcheye Vremya", received an anonymous Signal message wishing Ukrainians "more Shaheds at night and more rocket strikes on power plants in the coming year." She reported this on Facebook.

The anonymous sender wishes Ukrainians to leave "the Country 404 and move to Europe permanently altogether"; the Russian army, they note, "will help you fulfil these dreams."

In her comment to the IMI, Iryna said that she received the message today from one Thomas Schroeder.

Photo by Iryna Romaliyska

The journalist posted the screenshot and commented: "Our denazifier brothers send their holiday greetings. This is the message I received from a hidden number in Signal. I wonder what the sender expected: that Ukrainians would read this and get upset? Or what? It seems to me that they will read it and go donate money instead."

In the comments under Iryna's post, users write that they received similar "New Year's greetings" with wishes for Ukraine to become part of the Russian Federation and to "cleanse itself of the evil that has infested the country."

"Nastoyashcheye Vremya" is a Russian-language TV channel with an office in Prague (Czech Republic), a media project of Radio Liberty and "Voice of America".

As IMI reported, on December 18, NotaYenota fact-checkers pointed out that scammers started sending Ukrainians SMS messages from foreign numbers, posing as the fictitious "Poshta Ukrainy", saying that there are issues with parcel delivery due to the "address missing" or "wrong address". People are invited to follow the link and enter their data.

The cyber police also warned about the new scam scheme "You've Got Mail" in Ukraine.