Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Ukrainians are reportedly being recruited by Russians on the dark web to carry out arson attacks in Lviv, Kyiv, Dnipro, Odessa and other cities for between $1,500–2,000 each. Ukrainian Army vehicles have already been reported burned in three cities. ⬇️

2/ The Ukrainian publication Strana reports: "A Mitsubishi Pajero of a serviceman from the 80th Separate Assault Brigade was set on fire in Lviv. Two bottles of kerosene were found at the scene.

3/ "Two vehicles of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were burned in Odesa. Namely, a SsangYong and a Nissan Navara.

The fourth case was recorded in Rivne. A Nissan X-Trail was burned there, which volunteers brought to the Ukrainian Armed Forces for transfer."

4/ The independent Russian news outlet Important Stories has discovered that on 6 June, adverts appeared on one of the largest Russian-language dark web platforms asking for people to set fire to military vehicles in Ukraine.

According to Important Stories:

5/ "The ads are posted in a section for so-called "athletes" – physically strong people willing to beat up or maim others for a reward, as well as commit arson and other forms of property damage.

6/ "Initially, the practice of hiring these people was widespread in the drug market to "punish" unscrupulous drug couriers, but later spread to other areas.

7/ "Customers offer from $1,500 to $2,000 for setting fire to cars of Ukrainian security forces and employees of the territorial recruitment centres in Lviv, Kyiv, Dnipro, Odesa and other cities.

8/ "The requests are posted in Russian, their authors are recently registered users who have not been active in other sections of the site. They communicate with the performers via encrypted messengers or Telegram.

9/ "One of the customers claims that he is acting only for reasons of pacifism. This same user closed a deal with the executor of the successful arson of a military vehicle on Wednesday afternoon, when news reports appeared about the burning of Ukrainian Armed Forces vehicles."

10/ As Important Stories notes, the attacks come against the background of an apparently Europe-wide Russian campaign of sabotage and arson. It's very likely that they are part of the same campaign. /end

Sources:
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🔹 t.me/stranaua/161477
istories.media/news/2024/07/1…