The war in Ukraine’s information space took a turn for the bizarre on July 13 as the Twitter account of the National Security and Defense Council appeared to be taken over by persons unknown.
The first sign that something might be amiss
came at around 11 a.m., when the council’s official Ukrainian-language account
tweeted that “General Taran has been dismissed as leader of the Ukrainian side
of the JCCC” and that he had been charged with treason.
Major General Andriy Taran is the head of the
Ukrainian delegation to the JCCC, or Joint Center for Coordination and Control,
a body set up under the Minsk peace agreements to liaise between the Ukrainian
military and the Russian-separatists forces that have taken control over parts
of the Donbas.
Two hours later another tweet from the council’s
Twitter account claimed it was now under the control of Right Sector, an
ultranationalist group that rose to prominence during Ukraine’s EuroMaidan
protests in late 2013 and early 2014.
Right Sector is currently embroiled in a standoff
in Mukacheve, Zakarpattya Oblast, where a shootout between members of the group and
police resulted in three dead and triggered fears that the group might rebel
against the post-EuroMaidan authorities.
The mysterious Twitter messages seemed to play on these fears by mentioning
smuggling by authorities in the war-torn east – an allegation that was said to
be the catalyst for the fatal shootout on July 11.
A screenshot of the Ukrainian-langauge tweets that started to appear on the National Security and Defense Council’s Twitter feed on July 13.
Another tweet to come from the council’s account
said “General Taran covers for smuggling in the ATO (Anti-terrorist Operation)
zone. He has to be dismissed.”
Further tweets called for the dismissal of
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, and the arrest of lawmaker Mykhailo Lanyo, an ex-member of ousted President Viktor Yanukovych’s
Party of Regions, who is a current lawmaker elected from a constituency in
Zakarpattya Oblast. Another called for the immediate arrest of officers who ordered the
police to open fire on Right Sector fighters in Mukacheve.
But National Security and Defense Council
spokesman Anna Vakhotskaya told the Kyiv Post that the council’s Twitter account
had been hacked, that several email accounts of council employees had been
compromised, and that the council believed the hack was the work of the Russians.
“We can track down who did this,” Vakhotskaya said. “We’re
quite certain right now that this is the Russian security services trying to
cause panic about Right Sector. I’m sure Right Sector is busy with other things
right now.”
Tweeting from his own Twitter account, National
Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov appeared to blame the
hack on the Russians as well.
“The fact that Russian
intelligence services are engaged in compromising Taran testifies to the professionalism
of his work,” Turchynov tweeted.
Representatives of Right Sector were unavailable for
comment, including spokesperson Artyom Skoropadsky and Right Sector political
party chief Andriy Tarasenko.
Meanwhile, another tweet posted on the council’s
account read that “Right Sector does not wish to destroy Ukraine as a state.”
However, Vakhotskaya denied that Right Sector could
have been behind the hacking of the council’s Twitter account.
“All these messages saying that Right Sector hacked us
– they aren’t true. Because those who hacked the account don’t want to be
found, so of course they’d blame someone else,” Vakhotskaya said.
She said an ongoing council investigation had so far
revealed that the hacks had originated from several IP addresses within
Ukraine.
As of the time of the publication of this report, the
Twitter account was still under the control of unknown individuals.
Staff writer Allison
Quinn can be reached at [email protected]. Kyiv Post editor Euan MacDonald can
be reached at [email protected]
