This article was reprinted with permission after being published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
A large number of state organizations in Ukraine on October 14 were evacuated after hundreds of schools, companies, offices, and media stores received e-mails threatening a terrorist attack.
Authorities , inspected , institutions, companies, hotels, diplomats, and media organizations — including RFE/RL — that received the menacing e-mail looking for incendiary devices that the text said had been planted at those locations.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said 60 of its operations abroad had received the menacing e-mail, some of them suspending diplomatic service.
The spammers ‘ actions are alleged to have contributed to the alleged attacks, but the threating email does not mention any particular activity. RFE/RL editors Iryna Sysak and Valeria Yehoshyna, as well as contractor Yulia Khymeryk, did not provide any specific information.
It follows an , investigation , published by the three journalists in the Skhemy ( Schemes ) investigative unit of RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service showing how Russian intelligence services recruit Ukrainians, including minors, to set fire to the cars of the Ukrainian military personnel and representatives of conscription centers.
Late on October 14, staff of Ukraine’s National Police who searched the locations, including the RFE/RL office in Kyiv, claimed they had not discovered any incendiary devices after searching about 60 % of the affected locations, but queries continued.
A person identified himself as a member of a “terrorist team” whose name corresponds to that of an anti-Ukrainian Telegram channel, which has received calls to eliminate cars occupied by Russian military personnel and members of conscription centers. For safety and social reasons, RFE/RL does not disclose the name of the recipient or the organization.
After receiving the menacing e-mail, Schemes also , found out , that a man with the same title as the receiver of the menacing e-mail life in Russian-occupied Crimea and has a Russian card.
Stephen Capus, president of RFE/RL, claimed that RFE/RL was aware that its reporters had been identified in the disturbing emails.
Capus pledged to fully engage with officials in their studies and said,” We will not be intimidated and stand behind our writers who will continue to bring information to Ukrainian people without fear or favor.”
Schemes, the organization that claimed responsibility for the reported cultivation of explosives, is actively posting messages on social media calling for the destruction of Russian military vehicles and demonstrating the results of previous burning problems. The recruiting campaign offers$ 100 to those who consent to participate.
Artem Dekhtyarenko, spokesman for the Security Service of Ukraine ( SBU), claimed that Russia was attempting to make it appear as though regular Ukrainians are carrying out arson attacks when in fact Russian security services are responsible for them.
In exchange for a$ 1, 000 payment, the group’s Telegram channel also posts videos of officers holding Ukrainian citizens in conscription centers for mobilization and calls for persecution of these soldiers.
According to schemes, the same group’s representatives also allegedly sent messages to several Ukrainian government agencies promising to “kill for a fee” top security figures and public figures in early October. They described themselves as a group that “has long been engaged in the resolution of issues through physical elimination and the execution of orders for violent actions.”
The group’s website says that it provides” services” such as “racketeering, contract killings, car theft, bodily harm, arson”.
The SBU’s press office informed Schemes that the widespread distribution of threatening email messages should be viewed as a campaign to stoke panic in the Ukrainian population.