Dating sites have proven effective in tracking the progress of Vladimir Putin’s troops.
The information war is being played out on all fronts. During the first days of the invasion in Ukraine, the Western secret services relied on social networks to anticipate the military operations of Russian troops. Beyond VK, the “Russian Facebook”, the dating application Tinder and the one dedicated to gay dating Grindr have also proved particularly effective in monitoring the progress of Vladimir Putin’s troops in Ukraine.
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These applications display, to within a few kilometers, the geolocation of their users. Earlier this week, a British spy revealed to the newspaper DailyMail that several Russian soldiers had tried to seduce women and men from the enemy camp online, revealing their position on the battlefield.
Among the dozens of profiles available on these applications, Ukrainians were able to come across soldiers proudly displaying themselves in uniform in their photos, and carrying their Kalashnikovs. “This is one of the wacky novelties of this war. Dating apps have become, for a time, a gold mine for our spies, soldiers being particularly reckless. Through this, we were made aware of the army’s plans and the imminence of the invasion.explained this British MI6 agent.
A few hours before the start of the invasion, on the night of February 24, several Ukrainian women had already entrusted their country’s police services with requests for “matches” from Russian soldiers. Since then, Moscow has identified these flaws and ordered these troops to extinguish “until further noticetheir phone.