[WonderMomma]

"British soldiers salute our military, who have completed their training and are returning to the front in Ukraine."

[WonderMomma]

Source: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2023...-defence-leak/

From Discord to 4chan: The Improbable Journey of a US Intelligence Leak

April 9, 2023
Ukraine
USA

In recent days, the US Justice Department and Pentagon have begun investigating an apparent online leak of sensitive documents, including some that were marked “Top Secret”.

A portion of the documents, which have since been widely covered by the news media, focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while others detailed analysis of potential UK policies on the South China Sea and the activities of a Houthi figure in Yemen.

The existence of the documents was first reported by the New York Times after a number of Russian Telegram channels shared five photographed files relating to the invasion of Ukraine on April 5 – at least one of which has since been found by Bellingcat to be crudely edited.

These documents appeared to be dated to early March, around the time they were first posted online on Discord, a messaging platform popular with gamers.

However, Bellingcat has seen evidence that some documents dated to January could have been posted online even earlier, although it is unclear exactly when. Bellingcat also spoke to three members of the Discord community where the images had been posted who claimed that many more documents had been shared across other Discord servers in recent months.

As the channels were deleted following the controversy generated by the leaked documents, Bellingcat has not been able to confirm this claim.


An aerial view of the Pentagon building in Washington, June 15, 2005, with the Potomac river in the foreground. Photo (c): REUTERS/Jason Reed JIR/CN

Bizarrely, the Discord channels in which the documents dated from March were posted focused on the Minecraft computer game and fandom for a Filipino YouTube celebrity. They then spread to other sites such as the imageboard 4Chan before appearing on Telegram, Twitter and then major media publishers around the world in recent days.

Ukrainian officials have cast doubt on the veracity of the documents, with Mykhailo Podolyak, the adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, stating on Telegram that he believes Russia is behind the purported leak. But US security officials quoted by the New York Times appeared to hint at their authenticity.

Russian Presidential spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told CNN that the documents showed the extent of US and NATO involvement in Ukraine. Yet one pro-Russian Telegram channel that has been providing updates on the conflict wasn’t convinced and said it was possible the documents could be Western disinformation.

The documents appear to detail events and offer analysis of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine up until March 2023.

None of the documents seen by Bellingcat had been scanned but rather had been photographed. Creases can be seen on the documents with items, such as a hunter’s scope box and some Gorilla Glue visible in the background of those dated from early March. This appears to indicate that at least some of the documents were photographed in the same location.

The content of the shared documents ranges widely, with some topics including maps of hotspots in Ukraine such as Bakhmut and Kharkiv, a delivery timetable for Western munitions to Ukraine as well as maps and catalogues of Ukrainian air defence assets – including a calendar of ammunition expenditures. A “CIA Operations Center Intelligence Update” marked “Top Secret” for March 2 is also included in the images, although much of the information in these documents had previously been publicly available through media reports.

While it has as yet not been possible to uncover the original source of these apparent leaks, it has been possible to trace the spread of the documents over a variety of internet forums in recent months before they were reported by pro-Russian Telegram channels and then major media outlets.

Telegram and 4chan

On April 5, the documents started propagating through pro-Russian Telegram channels, with the first version found by Bellingcat being on the Telegram channel “Donbass Devushka” at 9:29pm (Ukraine time).


A post on the Donbas Devushka channel detailing the documents. The time reads 1:29pm as it was captured on a device operating on US Central time.

This post contained four images before another post with a further image was shared shortly after.

Just a couple of hours earlier, a user on 4chan had posted the first of eight messages in a thread on the Politically Incorrect (/pol/) board, three of which had attached images of seemingly similar, but mostly different, documents.

These eight messages, some of which can be seen below, were made by the same anonymous user, as indicated by the same ID being used – CXWfLHRB.


A series of posts on 4chan which were posted roughly two hours before similar documents appeared on the Donbas Devushka Telegram channel. The time on the first post reads 10:33 am US Central time, which is eight hours behind Ukraine.

In a further post without an image, the same poster argued with another 4chan user about the veracity of the information contained within their posts.



There was only one image in common between the Telegram and 4chan posts: a map that showed a number of statistics, including the cumulative number of KIA (killed in action) soldiers on the Russian and Ukrainian sides through the course of the war.

However, the numbers on these two sources differed, with the first source (4chan) showing more Russian losses than Ukrainian, and the second source (Donbass Devushka) the reverse.

A closer examination of the second image, with the much higher Ukrainian KIA numbers, that was posted on Telegram shows crude image manipulation.

As well as the later posting time and far blurrier resolution, the numbers are out of alignment. Spacing between some numbers and letters is also too large to be consistent with the font.

It therefore seems that either the Donbass Devushka Telegram account, or a previous source posted by this account, altered the original image to paint the Ukrainian losses as heavier than in the original assessment.

Nevertheless, neither of the sources for the 4chan or Telegram posts are the original.

Onto Discord

On 4 March – over a month before the Telegram and 4chan posts – 10 documents were posted in a Discord server called “Minecraft Earth Map”. Minecraft is a popular computer game with millions of players around the world. After a brief spat with another person on the server about Minecraft Maps and the war in Ukraine, one of the Discord users replied “here, have some leaked documents” – attaching 10 documents about Ukraine, some of which bore the “Top Secret” markings.


Image content pixelated by Bellingcat

All seven of the documents from the 4chan and Telegram posts – including the map with the lower casualty figures from Ukraine – were present in this post, along with three additional ones not posted in any Telegram, Twitter, or 4chan post at the time.

The user who shared this map later claimed on Twitter that he found them posted by another user on a Discord server called WowMao, run by and for fans of a popular YouTuber of the same name.

On March 1 and March 2, a WowMao user posted over 30 documents, many of which are marked “Top Secret”, on the server, therefore predating the Minecraft server posting.

This same user also posted dozens of other documents about Ukraine on this server before they were purged on April 7. While Bellingcat has seen these posts, it has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the documents within them.

Thug Shaker Central

However, the WowMao server may still not be the original source of these documents.

Bellingcat spoke to members of a separate Discord community who claimed that other images had been posted earlier on yet another, since deleted, server often called “Thug Shaker Central” but which also had several other names at different times. Image files shown to Bellingcat detailed a further document in the same style and formatting of those posted in the WowMao server that was dated to January 13.

Yet given the images shared were screengrabs and not a link to the original server post which has been taken down, it is not possible to independently verify their authenticity. The content of these documents beyond the date and classification was also blurred out when shown to Bellingcat.

The Thug Shaker Central server was originally named after its original founder, one member of the server with the username “Vakhi” told Bellingcat. Server administrator duties then passed through various users before a new member took on the responsibility and it went through one of many name changes. Vakhi did not want to name this person but said they were the original source of the leaked documents. According to Vakhi, and two other users who spoke to Bellingcat but declined to be identified by their usernames, the files that were leaked onto WowMao are only the “tip of the iceberg” compared to the quantity of documents posted onto Thug Shaker Central.

There are no traces left of this server outside of testimony from these users, and scattered references to its existence on 4chan. Bellingcat is therefore unable to independently verify all of the information shared by these users, including the aforementioned January document or if the other uploader described as the source of the leak was indeed the original source.

However, Bellingcat was able to confirm that Vakhi and the other users who spoke to Bellingcat, as well as another who shared documents on the WowMao server, were part of the Thug Shaker server given that they shared member lists with Bellingcat which matched in key details.

Their accounts of the server’s general nature also independently coincided. The name of the Thug Shaker server frequently changed, sometimes to that of a racial slur, and had around 20 active users making up a tight-knit community, members said. Posts and channel listings show that the server’s users were interested in video games, music, Orthodox Christianity, and fandom for the popular YouTuber “Oxide”.

This server was not especially geopolitical in nature, although its users had a staunchly conservative stance on several issues, members told Bellingcat. Racial slurs and racist memes were shared widely.

Bellingcat contacted Discord to ask about the existence of the Thug Shaker Central, WowMao and Minecraft Earth Map servers, as well as whether Discord had any knowledge that “Top Secret” documents were apparently being shared there

Bellingcat also asked the Department of Defense (DoD) whether the documents shared in the channels were genuine and if it was aware of the source of the apparent leak.

Discord said it was not able to provide comment at this time when contacted by Bellingcat.

The DoD told Bellingcat in an email that it was “actively reviewing the matter, and has made a formal referral to the Department of Justice for investigation”.

#END #

[WonderMomma]

Video is posted here and here.

Source: https://www.latimes.com/world-nation...iers-beheading

Ukraine probes video purported to show soldier’s beheading
APRIL 12, 2023 8:22 AM PT


Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says of the video that purports to show a Ukrainian soldier’s beheading: “Everyone must react, every leader. Do not expect that it will be forgotten, that time will pass.”(Czarek Sokolowski / Associated Press)

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine launched an investigation Wednesday into a gruesome video circulating on social media that purportedly shows the beheading of a Ukrainian soldier.
The video spread quickly online and sparked outrage from Ukrainian officials. The Kremlin called the footage “horrible” but said it needed to be verified.

The Associated Press was not able to verify the authenticity of the video or the circumstances of where and when it was shot.

Meanwhile, a Russian defense official claimed that fighters from Russia’s paramilitary Wagner group have seized three districts of Bakhmut, the embattled city that for months has been the focus of Moscow’s grinding campaign in the east.

The video circulating online appears to show a man in green fatigues wearing a yellow armband, typically donned by Ukrainian fighters. He is heard screeching before another man in camouflage uses a knife to decapitate him.

A third man holds up a flak jacket apparently belonging to the man being beheaded. All three men speak in Russian.

Since Russia’s forces invaded Ukraine more than a year ago, they have committed widespread abuses and alleged war crimes, according to the United Nations, rights groups and reporting by the Associated Press. Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of targeting apartment buildings in its strikes, and images of hundreds of civilians lying dead in the streets and in mass graves have horrified the world.

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes.

The Kremlin denies it has committed war crimes or that it has targeted civilians.

Ukrainian troops have also been accused of abuses, and last year Kyiv said it would investigate video footage circulated online that Moscow alleged showed Ukrainian forces killing Russian troops who may have been trying to surrender.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy said the violence in the latest video would not be forgotten — and that Russian forces would be held responsible for such acts.

“Everyone must react, every leader. Do not expect that it will be forgotten, that time will pass,” he said in a video posted to his official Telegram channel.

In it, he used strong language to describe Russian soldiers, including calling them “beasts.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that it’s necessary to thoroughly check the “horrible” video — including verifying that it’s real.

“In the world of fakes we live in the authenticity of the footage must be checked,” he said in a conference call with reporters.

Ukraine’s state security service launched an investigation the video, according to a statement from Vasyl Maliuk, the head of the agency, known as the SBU.

Posters in some pro-Kremlin Russian Telegram channels, while not confirming the authenticity of the video, did not dispute it. Some sought to justify it by saying that Russian troops have become hardened by combat.

Andrei Medvedev, a Russian state TV journalist and a member of the Moscow city legislature, speculated that the timing of the video’s release was “fairly opportune” for the Ukrainian army, saying it could help “fire up personnel ideologically” ahead of a planned major counteroffensive.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Zelensky, also linked the video’s release to the expected offensive, but said it was meant to “demoralize the public mood or at least change the psychological perception of the war right now.”

Ukraine’s ombudsman on Wednesday said that he will request that the U.N. Human Rights Committee investigate the video. Dmytro Lubinets said he has also written letters to the U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights, the U.N. Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, the U.N. secretary-general and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

He wrote on Telegram that “a public execution of a captive is yet another indication of a breach of Geneva Convention norms, international humanitarian law, a breach of the fundamental right to life.”

The front lines of the war have been largely frozen for months, with much fighting focused around the city of Bakhmut.

In the latest of regular video briefings, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Wagner forces had made some progress there. Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment, but Zelensky has said before that his troops could pull out if they face a threat of being encircled by Russian forces.

Konashenkov did not specify which neighborhoods of Bakhmut are now under Russian control, or how much of the city remains in Ukrainian hands.

Elsewhere, at least four Ukrainian civilians were wounded as Russian forces shelled a Ukrainian-held town near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, regional Gov. Serhii Lysak said.

In a Telegram post, Lysak said that “people are being pulled out from under the rubble” after Russian shelling destroyed 13 houses and cars in Nikopol, across the Dnieper river from the nuclear plant.

Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko alleged that Russian forces also attacked a town in the eastern Donetsk province with cluster munitions — which are banned by an international treaty — wounding one person. An AP and Frontline database called War Crimes Watch Ukraine has cataloged how Russia has used cluster bombs.

[WonderMomma]

Originally Posted by WonderMomma ↗

" Another 31 children deported by Russia were returned to Ukraine

This was announced by the executive director of the "Save Ukraine" charity Mykola Kuleba. In a few hours, the children will be in Kyiv."

"Vitalii, 16, was able to return from a children's camp in occupied Crimea. Russians brought him there for "re-education".

They were forced to sing Russian anthem, and brought to an isolator for listening to the Ukrainian anthem and keeping in touch with relatives."

[WonderMomma]

Originally Posted by WonderMomma ↗

"Ukraine has returned 100 servicemen from Russian captivity, including sailors, border guards and national guards, the head of the Presidential Office reports. These are the defenders of Mariupol, Azovstal, Gostomel, Chongar, Zmeinyi Island, ZNPP and Chornobyl NPP. Some of them were seriously injured."
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And video below.

"An Azov soldier and writer Valeria Karpylenko was released from captivity. She was defending Mariupol. On May 5, while at Azovstal, Valeria got married to border guard Andriy Subotin, who also defended the plant. At the time, their photos of them wearing foil wedding rings went viral, but three days later, Andriy was killed."

Attachment 1170304
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"The first moments in Ukraine as Ukrainian soldiers return home from Russian captivity."

[WonderMomma]

"The United States is leasing 500,000 155 mm artillery shells from South Korea. The parties agreed on this in March.

This is a lease of half a million rounds of ammunition, five times more than the amount sold by the South Korean government to the United States at the end of last year. This will allow Washington to increase the supply of shells to Ukraine from its own stockpiles after they are replenished by South Korea."



"Spain plans to send six Leopard 2A4s to Ukraine in the coming days, with delivery to be completed by the end of April, Defense Minister Margarita Robles says.

In addition to the tanks, Spain will supply Kyiv with 20 more armored personnel carriers, the minister added."

[WonderMomma]

"19 self-propelled guns "CAESAR" from Denmark should arrive in Ukraine within the next month, now the Ukrainian military is training on them in Denmark, - Acting responsibilities of the Ministry of Defense of Denmark.

Within six months, about 100 repaired Leopard 1A5 tanks, which Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands handed over to Ukraine, will also be delivered."




Video: "With the new military aid package from Germany, Ukraine received: 23,520 40mm munitions, eight reconnaissance drones, eight mobile antenna masts, one 2A1 Dachs armored engineering vehicle, and eight Mercedes-Benz Zetros trucks."

[WonderMomma]

"Fireworks banned in Ukraine

The Rada adopted bill No. 7438 as a whole. For - 290 deputies. The bill prohibits the use and sale of fireworks, salutes and firecrackers.

“The sound and light effects from the use of pyrotechnics harm the psychological health of the population in wartime due to their similarity to the sounds of explosions, especially considering the frequency of air raids in the country and the likelihood of rocket attacks on cities,” the explanatory note to the document says."

[WonderMomma]

1. "Short look into recent Ukrainian force generation activities, which have ramped up over the winter in the western part of the country.

At the moment it appears to be anchored on a two week refresher infantry course, with supplemental training activity at the unit level."

2-3. "The first stage starts off and focuses on a lot of basic range work. "

4. "The second stage appears to focus heavily on small unit tactics, note the US-supplied HMMWVs used."

5. "Separate unit level training activities have also increased, seen here, a fairly large maneuver activity utilizing UK-supplied Mastiff MRAPs."

⚡6. NOTE: This video was originally posted here, from a Russian source saying it was Ukrainian troops gathering outside of Bakhmut. Turns out its just a training video. A pro-Russian source slapped a song on it with Zelenskyy talking about Bakhmut and claimed it was troops gathering outside of Bakhmut.

I've replaced it with the video that game with the rest of these training videos and there is no sound.

"Separate unit level training activities have also increased, seen here, a fairly large maneuver activity utilizing UK-supplied Mastiff MRAPs."

[WonderMomma]

"The first video from the British 155-mm AS-90 self-propelled guns in the open spaces of Ukraine. A total of 30 such machines were promised."