'We know where your family live' - Ukrainian fighters face online death threats

Ukrainian soldiers and pro-Ukrainian activists are receiving decease threats, threats of rape against their relatives and different horrific maltreatment aft systematic sharing of their idiosyncratic accusation connected pro-Kremlin societal channels, a BBC probe has found.

The "doxxing" - leaking of backstage accusation online - is seemingly intended to demoralise the fighters.

"We were among those fewer citizens who tried to physically reason the Russian penetration of our town," recalls Oleksii from Berdyansk, a Ukrainian larboard metropolis that has been occupied by Russian forces since the archetypal days of the war. Oleksii and his woman Anastasiya threw a Molotov cocktail astatine a Russian armoured conveyance driving done their city. They instantly went into hiding.

"We knew Russians would beryllium searching for us," says Anastasiya. "We tried not to usage our phones, truthful we couldn't beryllium tracked. But erstwhile we turned them on, we saw hundreds of messages with threats from strangers, saying they would bent us, they would pain america with our ain Molotov cocktails. It was an implicit nightmare."

Russian authorities TV reported connected the couple's actions, and revealed their identities. On the aforesaid time their commencement dates, location addresses, telephone numbers, taxation information, societal media accounts and adjacent their car's fig sheet were posted connected Telegram, successful a pro-Kremlin transmission called "Work, brothers". The relationship has much than 46,000 subscribers.

The Telegram station called Oleksii, who utilized to beryllium a subordinate of the right-wing organisation "Right Sector", and Anastasiya "Nazis", an insult often thrown astatine Ukrainians by Russian authorities media.

The mates would sometimes person much than 1,000 violative messages a day.

"All my societal media accounts were afloat of abuse. I tried not to work them," recalls Anastasiya.

"Where are the pictures of your dormant bodies?" work 1 of the messages. Another said: "We cognize wherever you live."

"It was terrifying," says Anastasiya, "When you spell to furniture you can't slumber due to the fact that you're listening to each noise, wondering if idiosyncratic has travel for you."

After 2 months successful hiding, they managed to flight to Ukrainian-controlled territory.

The BBC has recovered that the "Work, brothers" transmission and different pro-Russian transmission - "Tribunal" - has shared the backstage information of astir 300 Ukrainian activists, soldiers and their relatives, to much than 120,000 subscribers.

Both channels were created connected 1 March 2022; the sixth time of the Russian penetration of Ukraine. Alongside backstage information, the channels regularly beforehand Russian disinformation and pro-Kremlin narratives.

Oleksandr, a Ukrainian worker presently warring connected the beforehand enactment successful eastbound Ukraine, recalls however successful August helium discovered that a video of his battalion destroying a Russian armoured conveyance was posted connected Telegram, alongside his day of birth, telephone fig and email address.

The station was published successful "Work, brothers", and said that Oleksandr's household was surviving successful Nova Kakhovka, a municipality successful the Kherson region, which is occupied by Russian troops.

"In the texts that I received, they called maine a 'bloody khokhol' [a derogatory Russian word for Ukrainians] and threatened to find my mum and sister successful Nova Kahovka and rape them," said Oleksandr. His parent died successful 2015 and his sister had moved to Turkey 7 years ago.

His location code was besides published. Soon afterwards, his level was breached into and his possessions stolen.

The BBC has tracked down immoderate of those intimately associated with the Telegram channels.

Olesya Orlenko, 41, from Moscow, describes herself arsenic a historiographer and journalist. She was 1 of the founders of an online task called "Tribunal", which runs a website and the Telegram transmission we person been monitoring. In the past she has promoted this enactment connected Russian authorities media.

Ms Orlenko claims she is nary longer associated with Tribunal, but uses acquainted Kremlin narratives erstwhile describing the objectives of the project.

"It was created to cod accusation astir Ukrainian Nazis [a word utilized by Russian authorities media] who committed crimes during the struggle successful Donbas [in eastbound Ukraine], truthful that aboriginal this accusation could beryllium utilized by Russian oregon planetary courts," she said.

She denied she had thing to bash with the sharing of soldiers' idiosyncratic details. However, she was inactive 1 of those successful complaint of Tribunal erstwhile the doxxing started connected its Telegram channel.

The BBC has besides contacted 1 of the administrators of the chat radical associated with the transmission "Work, brothers".

Tatyana is 39 and an bureau idiosyncratic from Podolsk successful the Moscow region. She told the BBC that successful her escaped clip she "helps 'Work, brothers' arsenic a volunteer".

She denied seeing Ukrainian soldiers' idiosyncratic accusation and threats connected the channel. We sent Tatyana a screenshot with a illustration of a Ukrainian worker and her comments beneath the post. She stopped replying to us.

"These channels interruption Telegram's presumption of work due to the fact that they beforehand unit successful a systematic way", says Julia Smirnova, a elder expert astatine Institute for Strategic Dialogue focused connected disinformation and online hatred speech.

"They telephone for 'punishing' radical whose information they publish, usage hateful presumption and slurs to picture them," says Ms Smirnova. "The channels besides people posts that observe killings of Ukrainian subject unit oregon unit against radical supporting the Ukrainian army."

Telegram prohibits the promotion of unit connected nationalist channels. It besides has an in-app reporting diagnostic wherever users tin emblem unit and shared idiosyncratic details.

Remi Vaughn, Telegram's spokesperson, told the BBC that the institution "actively moderates" the work of backstage information and "diligently removes" contented that breaches its presumption of service.

To trial this, we utilized the in-app diagnostic to study 50 posts which included the idiosyncratic accusation of Ukrainian soldiers and comments with wide calls for violence. A week aboriginal the posts and comments remained online.

This comes arsenic nary astonishment to Viktor, different Ukrainian solider who had antecedently experienced harassment online for being an LGBT+ activist.

"I ever reported specified things to Telegram, but I've ne'er heard backmost from them. There was nary absorption astatine all," helium says.

Earlier this year, his idiosyncratic details and pictures were again posted connected Telegram. There were decease threats successful the comments, but what truly angered him was that this clip the maltreatment went further, and targeted his family.

"They shared addresses of my parents and adjacent of my granny. They texted my sister. They adjacent posted her code successful Mykulichi that was occupied by Russians."

The colony is adjacent Bucha, wherever dozens of civilians were killed by Russian troops.

"It's bully they posted it aft the colony was liberated. But what if they did it earlier?" says Viktor. "There were existent cases erstwhile relatives of Ukrainian soldiers were changeable dead. These radical [who stock it] and Telegram itself should beryllium held to account."