The Security Service of Ukraine has systematically stopped attempts of the Russian special services to use the Internet for promoting separatism and inflating panic around the coronavirus.

As of April 28, the SBU cyber experts had already exposed 241 Internet agitators distributing various fakes about COVID-19. The SBU has also blocked over 2,000 Internet communities with a total number of almost 900,000 followers.

Special services operatives found that 11 of the detected agitators acted on the task of the Russian side. The criminal proceedings were initiated for actions aimed at trespass against territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine, forced change or overthrow the constitutional order or take-over of government (Art.109 and 110 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). Such agitprops operated in Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Lviv, Kherson, Poltava, Kropyvnytskyi and Konotop cities.

In particular, a resident of Konotop was served a suspicion notice of committing the crime under Part 2 Art.109 and Part 1 Art.110 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. A woman disseminated in one of the banned social networks in Ukraine appeals to change the constitutional order and promote the idea of so-called “Novorossia” establishment. Moreover, the offender actively propagated misleading information about the global pandemic. The internet agitator can be sentenced from three to five years of imprisonment.

SBU materials helped the National Police to draw up more than 100 administrative protocols for spreading false rumors, which can cause panic or disrupt public order, under Art.173-1 of the Code of Administrative Offences of Ukraine. The Security Service of Ukraine reminds of criminal and administrative responsibility for the deliberate destabilization of the situation, including via the Internet. We urge Internet users to be vigilant and pay special attention to online security, trust only information from official sources.

Earlier, the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Ivan Bakanov submitted proposals to the National Security Defense Council of Ukraine to continue sanctions against Russian social networks Odnoklassniki, VKontakte and other Russian websites.