Ukraine Gate – Kiev – February 28, 2022- Meta said she had discovered on Facebook that Russia was trying to undermine confidence in the Ukrainian government and an attack by a hacker group linked to Belarus on the pages of the Ukrainian army and journalists.
The company noted that these two separate attempts were small and were registered in the early stages.
The attempt to undermine trust in the Ukrainian authorities involved a network of about 40 Facebook and Instagram accounts, pages and groups operating in Russia and Ukraine. These pages were disguised as independent media and published posts claiming that Ukraine was a “failed state.” Such efforts were aimed at attracting traffic to their own websites, whose links to the news were published on the social network itself. Meta said it had deleted the accounts and blocked related websites.
The company also added that in recent days there has been a surge in attempts to hack the accounts of high-ranking Ukrainians, including the military, journalists and public figures from Belarus-linked hacker group Ghostwriter. The goal is to publish misinformation from their pages. Meta has warned a number of Ukrainians who have recently been targeted by the attack, adding that it is blocking domains used by hackers in their phishing attempts.
The company stressed that it is now much faster to detect various disinformation campaigns, and they do not reach the audience that would have reached a few years ago.
As a reported, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine on February 24 and launched a large-scale invasion. Russian troops are shelling and destroying key infrastructure, and missiles are hitting Ukrainians’ homes.
Martial law was imposed in Ukraine and general mobilization was announced. Ukraine has officially filed a lawsuit against the Russian Federation in the UN International Court of Justice in The Hague.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine, with the support of all the people, are courageously resisting aggression. According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces, the losses of the Russian army currently amount to about 4,500 people.
