While the fight is taking place not far from him in Kharkiv, Serhii is conducting a battle from his home, surrounded by complete comfort.

In his room in Sumy, just 20 kilometers from Russia in northeastern Ukraine, the 33-year-old has everything he needs to make a Molotov cocktail.

But at the moment, he is not waging such a war against Moscow.

Instead, he is taking part in the Ukrainian government's digital attacks on Russia, aimed at shutting down Russian government websites and disrupting Moscow's ability to exchange information.

When Russian aggression over Ukraine erupted, Kiev opened a channel on the Telegram called the "Ukrainian IT Army," which shares information on how and what Russian digital infrastructure to attack.

And Serhii, a software developer, decided to use his skills, writes Euronews, reports Telegrafi.

The Russian army surrounded Sumy for several days and Serhii said he could hear the bombardment from his windows.

Before the aggression, he had a more neutral view of Russia and even spoke Russian as his first language.

"But after what happened, I switched to Ukrainian," he said.

"It seems that no one in Russia understands our anger after what happened in Mariupol and Bucha."

"The IT army is more than strong"

Slava Banik is in charge of the "Ukrainian Hacker Army" in the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.

He says the initiative is one of the many ways the government is fighting Russia.

And he claims that more than 300,000 people - not just Ukrainians - are participating in this army, trying to thwart Russian efforts.

According to him, one way is to overload Russian websites with unwanted traffic, taking them offline.

It's a simple tactic that ordinary citizens can use, and it targets Russian banks, government websites, the media, and even shops and broadcasting services.

"This voluntary movement, or the army, is attacking government portals, websites and infrastructure, railway infrastructure and so on," Banik said.

"And of course, the banking sector and other sectors are used by a lot of Russian people."

"More than 70% of Russians support this invasion and they, of course, must also feel the results of their invasion of Ukraine and (pay) for their support for this war."

The aim is to anger the Russian population and turn them against Vladimir Putin.

In this regard, the "Ukrainian Army of Hackers" has claimed to have successfully blocked Russian websites and banking services.

Banik said this is a way for the government to change its historically defensive position against Russian digital attacks in Ukraine.

In some cases before the aggression, Ukraine has been targeted by Russian hackers, with its infrastructure critically affected, as in 2017 when several Ukrainian government bodies were hit.

"Before the war, we never tried to attack Russia, but instead worked for our security," Banik recalled.

"But after the war started, we realized we had to respond."

But the "Ukrainian IT Army" is not the only initiative.

The Ministry of Digital Transformation has also set up a feature in its government application Diia called оВорог (e-enemy), where people can report and share photos and videos of Russian military positions.

Banik says the government has received more than 300,000 reports from civilians.

"We see an increase in attacks"

Dr.

Matthias Schulze is a cyber security expert and deputy director of the research division at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

He has been analyzing the cyber war between Russia and the West for years and says he has seen a rise in shares since the start of Russian aggression in February.

And not just between Ukraine and Russia.

"We are seeing an increase in hackers' attacks on Russian services such as the FSB secret service, banks, media websites and companies like Gazprom," Schulze said. "The Russians are doing the same in Ukraine." and in the West.

He says there are three main categories of attacks.

Mild attacks, where hackers temporarily block the websites of media, governments and companies by hitting their servers.

More serious attacks, where hackers try to steal sensitive data to make it public.

Then there are the more harmful attacks, where hackers try to install ransomware on critical infrastructures such as railways and power plants to shut them down.

Schulze said the first two were seen after the Russian aggression of Ukraine, but that it is difficult to say who is specifically behind them.

"We've seen a lot of cyber attacks, but the intensity or quality has not been so terrible," says Schulze.

"We know that Russia, for example, can do more damage, but they have not succeeded so far."

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Telegraphy

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