A speech by the Ukrainian president, calling on the Russian-speaking peoples to resist the forced mobilizations, was propagated by hackers on institutional sites in Dagestan, a region of the Caucasus.
Ukraine wants to shake up the Russian-speaking peoples. On September 30, 2022, a speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was broadcast on the websites of federal institutions of Russia. The speech is directly addressed to the inhabitants of the Caucasus – in the south of the country – and more particularly to the Dagestanis, a population which opposed the mobilization decreed by Vladimir Putin. Thus, the sites of the Ministry of Education of Dagestan as well as that of the association of mayors displayed the video of Zelensky’s speech on their homepage.
” Caucasian people! People of Russia! You don’t have to die in Ukraine. Your sons must not die in Ukraine “Launches the Ukrainian president in front of the camera, calling on the population to refuse to invest in this invasion.
The video was also reportedly shown on Russian online TV. Videos circulating on social networks show the speech launched from the program grid. Ukrainian hackers have already managed to transmit messages on online television platforms during Putin’s speech. Zelensky’s speech was probably broadcast the same way, by hacking the web services of TV operators. No group of Ukrainian hacktivists claimed responsibility for this operation.
1.2 million Russian men mobilized
This whole operation only lasted a few hours, but was relayed, in particular by the Russian media, as an attempt to destabilize the country. The Ukrainian counter-offensive caused heavy losses to the Russian army, forcing the Kremlin to decree a mobilization across the country, which had not happened since 1941.
Vladimir Putin had announced that only 300,000 reservists would be called up. Nevertheless, the investigative media as well as videos shot by locals prove that it is more than 1.2 million people who will be requisitioned, in particular in the outlying and rural regions of Russia. The people of Dagestan are those who have resisted the military the most: many mothers have intervened to prevent their sons from being captured.
The Ukrainian authorities hope that these populations will continue to oppose the injustices of the autocratic regime.
