Page 61 - bne Magazine August 2022

bne August 2022 Eastern Europe I 61
Belarusian Cyber Partisans, via Yuliana Shemetovets, explained the reason for the January 24 attack. Although neither demand was met, the group still saw success in their action.
“The major reason for the attack was to show that Belarusians are against the presence of Russian military troops on the Belarusian territory and the potential occupation of Belarus which de-facto happened,” Shemetovets said.
Shemetovets agreed that Lukashenko’s reaction was proof that the attacks reached their target, creating “a lot of damage for the regime”. Nevertheless, BCP realises that cyberweapons
can only achieve so much in the fight against “a strong oppressive dictatorship regime”.
“People and weapons on the ground are a decisive component and without this component, Belarusians don’t
“However, physical impact operations are much more influential at the end of the day. Especially if we are talking about war conflicts (...) The technology isn’t yet there to draw all the resources from classic warfare operations.” As such, BCP has collaborated with groups on the ground, namely the “Community of Belarusian Railway Workers”. Enacting both cyberattacks and physical “rail sabotage activities on the ground”, they brought military trains carrying equipment and ammunition of Russian troops to a halt on March 6.
Moreover, BCP also communicate
with Ukrainian hacktivists, forming
a volunteer group called the Kastu€ Kalino€ski Regiment. Here important information is shared, such as the location of Russian or Belarusian troops.
But another hurdle lies in the lack of funding. Unlike the official armed forces, independent hackers don’t have a prodigious f low of money, limiting their capabilities.
“Hacktivists in general are not paid or supported by any state agencies (of course, if we are talking about non- state actors like BCP) and it’s hard to constantly show meaningful results,” said Shemetovets.
Nevertheless, their actions have inspired more and more hackers to join the Cyber Partisans, with the number of participants doubling since the
start of the war. Currently around 60 people are part of the team, although
“People and weapons on the ground are
a decisive component and without this component, Belarusians don’t have many chances to overthrow Lukashenko”
“Another important aspect was to show that Lukashenko is not in control of the key infrastructure and cannot be trusted by anyone, even Putin.”
The latter point was emphasised even further when BCP discovered the government had been wiretapping conversations from the Russian embassy in Belarus. They released the secretly recorded conversations last month, revealing that Minsk had been spying on its closest ally.
“Even if BCP created some unpleasant conversations and the increase in distrust between Belarusian and Russian officials, BCP would consider
it a successful result,” explained Shemetovets. “It looks like Putin is doing everything possible to drag Belarus
into this meaningless war, and we need to show that the relationship between Belarusian and Russian officials is not that smooth.” The attacks have certainly got under the skin of Lukashenko who claimed in March that cyberweapons are “more terrifying” than nuclear weapons and require more attention.
“The clown [Lukashenko] is once again complaining that he can't do anything about our attacks,” the group posted to Telegram in response, “which means we're on the right track and continue to shake up the regime until our overall victory.” Speaking to bne IntelliNews,
have many chances to overthrow Lukashenko,” she said.
Although the war in Ukraine has hallmarks of an archaic 20th-century war, with a crazed despot invading a neighbouring country, the involvement of militant independent hacktivists is something completely new. The full impact of guerrilla cyber activists is yet to be seen.
“Cyber operations can be very successful, and in the case of Cyber Partisans, we can see how much they can achieve – from uncovering the crimes that the regime committed to disrupting the movement of Russian troops and helping find spies,” said Shemetovets.
Project expenses as of 11 March 2022
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