NEW RESOURCES

Asahi Shimbun: Volunteers turn battlefield photos into interactive map of Ukraine. “Volunteers from around the world are working on a project initiated in Japan to visually map out the evolution of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. They are establishing the locations of photos that depict the ravages of the war and adding the images to an online 3-D map to visualize how the armed conflict has progressed over the past two months or so.” There’s a QR code at the top with other images from the article. That will take you to the map.

ArtDependence: Imagine Ukraine: A Three-Part Project in Support of Ukrainian Cultural Front. “The PinchukArtCentre (Kyiv, Ukraine), Victor Pinchuk Foundation and M HKA (Antwerp, Belgium) in partnership with Bozar (Brussels, Belgium), the European Parliament (Brussels, Belgium), and the Office of the President of Ukraine present Imagine Ukraine, a three-part project continuing the cultural front against Russia’s war in Ukraine.”

Penn State Collegian: Musicians come together in video collaboration for Ukraine. “The melancholic sound of Ukrainian violinist Vera Lytovchenko’s music has echoed in subway stations, consoling people, some homeless, huddled in fear of Russian bombings. A new music video called ‘The Brave Ones’ has her in an online collaboration with more than 200 musical artists from various nations, including the U.S., South Africa, Japan and Canada.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

BBC: Ukraine conflict: Patron the mine-sniffing dog awarded medal. “A Ukrainian mine-sniffing dog has been given a medal for his services to the country since Russia’s invasion. Patron, a Jack Russell terrier, was presented with the award by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky at a ceremony in Kyiv.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Diálogo Américas: Russia’s Tools for Disinformation and Propaganda in Latin America. “Since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, RT en Español has consistently pushed baseless conspiracy theories to its Spanish-language audience. These include articles claiming the Ukrainian military created a ‘staged recording’ of civilian deaths in Moschun, a town near the capital city Kyiv, and that Russia was not involved in the massacre in Bucha, in which hundreds of Ukrainians died, as news site Insider reported. Unlike major fact-based international media outlets, RT and Sputnik lack fiscal transparency. They do not publish public budget sheets or detailed annual financial reports, and the public must rely on vague estimates occasionally announced by the Russian government.”

Detektor: Russia Targets Bosnia With Disinformation About Ukrainian War. “Moscow is busy selling its own version of the war in Ukraine to Bosnian citizens – cynically using analogies with the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica to justify its invasion and destabilize Bosnia at the same time.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bleeping Computer: Ukraine’s IT Army is disrupting Russia’s alcohol distribution. “Hacktivists operating on the side of Ukraine have focused their DDoS attacks on a portal that is considered crucial for the distribution of alcoholic beverages in Russia. DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks are collective efforts to overwhelm servers with large volumes of garbage traffic and bogus requests, rendering them unable to serve legitimate visitors.”

Business Insider: Hackers replaced Russian TV schedules during Putin’s ‘Victory Day’ parade with anti-war messages, saying the blood of Ukrainians is on Russians’ hands. “Russian television schedules were hacked to display an anti-war message as the country celebrated a national military festival on Monday, BBC Monitoring reported. On-screen program descriptions were replaced with the hackers’ text when viewed on smart TVs, the outlet reported. The message read, per the BBC’s translation: ‘On your hands is the blood of thousands of Ukrainians and their hundreds of murdered children. TV and the authorities are lying. No to war.'”

Ars Technica: Russia hammered by pro-Ukrainian hackers following invasion. “For years, Dmitriy Sergeyevich Badin sat atop the FBI’s most-wanted list. The Russian government-backed hacker has been suspected of cyberattacks on Germany’s Bundestag and the 2016 Olympics, held in Rio de Janeiro. A few weeks into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, his own personal information—including his email and Facebook accounts and passwords, mobile phone number, and even passport details—was leaked online.”

Euractiv: Russian-style hackers ruin Bulgarian post office. “A massive hacking attack, with Russian involvement that took place on 16 April completely disrupted the Bulgarian State Post Office, which still does not function properly, the government’s IT expert Vasil Velichkov has said. The state post office counts 2,973 post offices and 9,000 employees in over 2,300 localities. The payment of pensions, postal services and the distribution of the press are among their key functions.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Australian Financial Review: Deepfakes and espionage, but no cyber apocalypse from Ukraine invasion. “Vladimir Putin’s underestimation of Ukraine in the physical and online world, coupled with the global response to his invasion, has forced Russia to pour its top-tier cyber efforts into reconnaissance and espionage rather than all-out digital warfare, experts say. Despite fears before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that the world would face havoc from Russian-sponsored hackers targeting businesses and countries around the world, the so-called cyber-apocalypse has thus far failed to materialise.”

1945: Putin’s Dream Of Rebuilding The Russian Empire Died In Ukraine. “Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine accomplished exactly the opposite Moscow had intended. It strengthened Ukrainian identity, consolidated NATO, unified the EU, and united all democracies worldwide to stand up to Russian aggression. The international community must use all the tools at its disposal to defend Ukraine, strengthen European democracies and liberate Russian citizens from Putin’s brutal and oppressive regime.”

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