During the quarantine, SBU cyber specialists blocked over 2.3 thousand Internet communities with a total number of followers of more than 980 thousand. Also, the SBU uncovered 323 Internet agitators who spread various fakes about the COVID-19 epidemic. It is established that 16 agitprops were acting on the instructions of Russian side. 

According to the SBU cyber experts, the activity of the Russian special services and the intelligence networks under their control is currently increasing. They try to use any information to cause chaos and panic. In particular, following the instructions of the curators, pro-Russian agitators spread fake news about the Victory Day celebration, forced quarantine restrictions, and other measures related to compliance with the protection regulations against the spread of COVID-19.

The SBU recorded the intensification of Russian troll and bot farms that call for protests and violation of quarantine restrictions. During the Victory Day celebrations, their activities were partially redirected from coronavirus topic to Kremlin-friendly messages related to the events of World War II. Russian special services used this information pretext to manipulate the consciousness of Ukrainian citizens in order to promulgate "russkiy mir" ideology.

The SBU initiated criminal proceedings against 16 Russia-controlled agitprops for trespass against territorial integrity, inviolability, and for the actions aimed at forceful change or overthrow of the constitutional order or take-over of government (Art. 109 and 110 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). Such agitators were “working” in Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Lviv, Kherson, Poltava, Kropyvnytskyi, Konotop, Ivano-Frankivsk and Khmelnytsky cities.

In particular, two residents of Ivano-Frankivsk and Khmelnytsky cities, on the instructions of Russian special services, spread fakes about quarantine restrictions and instigated protests. They also called for change of the territory and state border of Ukraine, and for the forceful overthrow of the constitutional order. At the same time, they operated under the guise of the Ukrainian SMM company.

The investigation is ongoing. The issue of serving a notice of suspicion to the offenders for trespass against territorial integrity and inviolability is being decided.

The SBU provided information about the identified 307 agitators to the National Police.

134 individuals have already been brought to administrative responsibility for spreading false rumors, which may cause panic or disturbance of public order, under the Art. 173-1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses.

The SBU urges Internet users to be vigilant and pay special attention to the Internet security, and to trust only the information from the official sources.

Once again, the Security Service of Ukraine reminds of the criminal and administrative responsibility for the deliberate destabilization of the situation in the country, including via the Internet.

We remind that earlier the Head of the SBU Ivan Bakanov filed the motions to the Council of National Security and Defense of Ukraine to prolong sanctions against Russian social networks "Odnoklassniki", "VKontakte", and other web resources and software products.