MOSCOW, Jan 20 The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced on Friday about the elimination of a network of pro-Russian Internet agitators from several regions of the country.
«The security service has neutralized the interregional network of pro-Kremlin Internet agitators in the course of investigative and operational actions in the Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye, Lvov, Nikolaev and Cherkasy regions,» the agency's Telegram channel said. It is reported that in the part of the Zaporozhye region controlled by Kyiv, a man was detained, in personal correspondence urging acquaintances who moved to Lviv to return to Zaporozhye, as well as a woman who supported the entry of the region into the Russian Federation.
According to the agency, in Lvov and the Cherkasy region, two suspects who disseminated «pro-Russian records» on their pages in social networks were searched. It is also reported about the detention of the head of a local public organization in the Nikolaev region, the department does not report on the pro-Russian views of the suspect, however, it is alleged that the man tried to «undermine the internal political situation» in southern Ukraine.
In addition, according to the SBU, four residents of the Dnepropetrovsk region are credited with discrediting Ukrainian troops and supporting the Russian Federation, which they expressed in comments on the Internet. The department does not provide evidence of the connection of citizens with each other, the names of the detainees are not published.
Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on 24 February. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass.