How Ukrainian hackers duped Russian army wives to pose for 'calendar' By David Averre Published: 06:14 EDT, 24 October 2024 | Updated: 06:18 EDT, 24 October 2024 e-mail Advertisement 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'.
