Ukraine is overwhelmed by a wave of hoax mines. Not only shopping malls and offices, but also railway stations, airports, state institutions and even hospitals suffer from them. Over the past week, similar reports have been received several times in Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv and other cities.
Fifteen thousand is a record number of hoax bomb reports checked by Ukrainian law enforcement agencies in a month. They take place almost daily in Ukraine, and the work of special services at each such case costs the budget about $2,000 in equivalent. For example, a hospital in Lviv has already been evacuated 11 times.
The hospital has more than 1,000 staff members, as well as the same number of patients, including serious patients. They are trying to reduce the damage caused by regular evacuations due to fake mine clearance reports.
According to the police, such reports are increasingly coming not from individuals, but from special programs and bots. This has become part of the hybrid warfare.
Despite the big number of cases, the police and rescuers are obliged to respond to every such call. Vitaliy Turovtsev, an official representative of the Lviv region’s Emergency Service, says:
“If we get it directly in our switchboard, we notify the appropriate services: the police, SBU, other services and send our rescue equipment, which organizes the duty directly near the probably mined area. Over the past year, the number of such cases has increased significantly, and there are more and more hoax mines in the city and region”.
According to psychologists, cyber terrorism is aimed at creating fear and panic in society, undermining confidence in the government and creating a sense of instability. Psychotherapist Anna Shushanova said:
“They are primarily influenced by the fact that basic human security is being violated. In fact, it doesn’t really matter to the psyche whether it’s a real threat or a fictional one. Since the general security of people is violated, they cannot develop, they cannot think about any more global things and it works very well, first of all, as a distraction from some other social things”.
Because of the increased number of cyberattacks in Ukraine, law enforcers suggest that MPs increase the penalties for such offences. Now up to 6 years in prison are threatened for this, but the police insist on the use of punishment in the form of confiscation of property.
Valeriya Pechyonik belsat.eu
