Hackers claim they have uncovered the identity of the Russian aviation commander behind the bombing of Ukraine’s southern port town Mariupol – and tricked his spouse into revealing sultry snaps of herself and other officers’ companions.
Ukrainian hacktivist team Cyber Resistance and volunteer organisation Inform Napalm declared that Colonel Sergei Atroshchenko – commander of the 980th Assault Aviation Regiment – purchased a pair of warplanes to drop two 500kg bombs on Mariupol’s theatre on March 16, 2022.
Hundreds of civilians had been killed in the assault on the theatre, which was currently being used as an air raid shelter and had the phrase ‘CHILDREN’ emblazoned on the courtyard outside.
Possessing acquired Atroshchenko’s personalized facts, the hacktivists then posed as an officer from his regiment and questioned his spouse Lilia to organise a ‘patriotic photoshoot’ of wives and girlfriends for their adult males on the frontlines.
On 16th March, 2023 – exactly just one year to the day that her husband is mentioned to have purchased the heinous bombing of the Mariupol theatre – she duly obliged.
Lilia providing the hacktivists with a spectacular reel of illustrations or photos demonstrating 12 wives posing in their husbands’ uniforms, supplying the hackers all the information and facts they desired to recognize many a lot more Russian commanders they think are guiding the assaults on Mariupol – alongside with a trove of NSFW images.
Colonel Sergei Atroshchenko, of Russia’s 960th Assault Aviation Regiment, is believed to have supplied the order to a pair of Russian warplanes to bomb Mariupol’s theatre on March 16, 2022
The hackers posted numerous intimate images that Lilia Atroshchenko experienced despatched to her spouse
Lilia sent the hackers dozens of images from a photoshoot of Russian commanders’ wives and girlfriends
Lilia organised for a group of wives and girlfriends to pose with their husbands’ uniforms, giving away their identities. She also sent a variety of visuals of Russian planes, as nicely as NSFW pictures
Tell Napalm discovered that Atroshchenko was born in the Ukrainian city of Ovruch, in the Zhytomyr location, right before going to Lipetsk in Russia and registering in Voronezh.
He later on served in the armed service in occupied Crimea in advance of going to the southern Russian city of Primorsko-Akhtarsk, just 3 miles away from the airbase where his regiment is stationed.
Hackers also stated the Ukrainian-born Atroshchenko, 42, personally gave orders for warplanes to start attacks on other civilian targets, including Mariupol’s maternity healthcare facility.
They introduced a torrent of the commander’s private details together with private get hold of specifics and wage, sensitive facts these as lists of the pilots beneath his command and their effectiveness evaluations, and numerous ‘theoretical and practical’ specifics of missions which they sent to Ukraine’s intelligence products and services for analysis.
Just two times soon after the hackers received the photographs from Lilia, Atroshchenko’s regiment was awarded honours as component of an govt buy signed by Russian president Vladimir Putin.
The regiment was elevated to the honorary title of ‘guards’ for their ‘mass heroism and valour, fortitude and courage in fight functions to secure the Fatherland’, according to the decree.
Hackers also reported the Ukrainian-born Atroshchenko, 42, individually gave orders for warplanes to start attacks on other civilian targets, like Mariupol’s maternity hospital
Inform Napalm unveiled visuals of Atroshchenko’s individual specifics, such as his military services registration document and his registration in the Russian city of Voronezh. Atroshchenko was born in Zhytomyr in Ukraine
The hackers accessed Atroshchenko’s private accounts and acquired the identities of his regiment and their households
The hackers had been also in a position to locate a series of illustrations or photos and films of Russian warplanes, as well as delicate paperwork, on Atroshchenko’s accounts
Advise Napalm claimed hackers had sent aspects they experienced acquired on Atroshchenko to the Global Criminal Court (ICC) to add to the ongoing investigation into Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
It will come as the Biden administration declared it would present aid for the development of a tribunal focused to uncovering and prosecuting war crimes.
‘The United States supports the advancement of a distinctive tribunal on the crime of aggression in opposition to Ukraine in the variety of an internationalised courtroom that is rooted in Ukraine’s judicial system, with global factors,’ the Point out Section claimed in opinions emailed to reporters.
The officials mentioned they envision a hybrid tribunal based on the Ukrainian justice system but with intercontinental parts – related to past advertisement hoc war crimes courts set up for Cambodia, Chad, the Central African Republic and Bosnia – and probable based in The Hague, Netherlands.
‘This variety of design – an internationalised nationwide court – will facilitate broader international aid and show Ukraine’s leadership in making certain accountability for the criminal offense of aggression,’ the State Division stated.
‘It also builds on the case in point of other profitable justice mechanisms.’
The Hague will be dwelling to the Intercontinental Centre for Prosecution of the Criminal offense of Aggression, a Ukraine-focused investigations unit that is anticipated to be totally operational this summer time. The centre’s places of work and employees could be integrated into what ever tribunal is sooner or later produced, the U.S. officers claimed.
The Hague also hosts the ICC and the Global Courtroom of Justice. The ICC prosecutor issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and an aide previously this month for the abductions of Ukrainian young children.
But the U.S. is not a member of the ICC, which complicates its capability to guidance the courtroom with evidence or other facts that could be made use of in its prosecutions.
