As Russia has subjected Ukraine to ground attacks and missile bombardments, an invisible group of hundreds of thousands of volunteers has been fighting back — from their bedrooms.
Earlier this week Ukraine’s vice-prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced the launch of an “IT army”, urging underground hackers globally to start disruptive cyber attacks on Moscow and to bolster the cyberdefence of Ukraine’s critical infrastructure. Within just a few days, it has grown to more than 400,000 members, Ukrainian officials estimate.
Directing volunteers via a channel on the messaging app Telegram, the collective has claimed it is responsible for numerous mini-victories, including taking down, at least temporarily, the websites of the Moscow stock exchange, Russia’s federal security agency and the country’s largest bank Sberbank. On Thursday, it announced fresh targets: Russia’s satellite navigation system and the Belarusian railway network, which is being used for the transportation of Russian troops and supplies.