In 2022, sabotage will not only happen on Earth. Much of the rail war is being carried out by “Cyberpartisans,” a group of 35 hackers who shut down entire systems or infected them with ransomware. “This is how we thwart Russian progress. We cannot prevent the delivery of weapons, but we can greatly delay them,” said Yuliana Shemitovets. She works from abroad as a spokesperson for the working group.

Cyberpartisans members have been active for years and previously managed to hack the Ministry of the Interior of Belarus, among other things. “The attack on the railway company is our biggest action to date. We cannot tell you about future plans, but we will continue to do so.”

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The Belarusian authorities were hardly able to fend off the cyber attacks. The country has a large IT sector, but after protests over the fraudulent re-election of Lukashenko, many IT workers left the system or left the country. After the online train ticket sale closed, it took two weeks before the system was operational again.

According to Shemtovets, ordinary citizens are not at risk of sabotage. We cannot rule out accidents, but we are trying to specifically attack military trains. ”The electronic advocate says that there is close cooperation with people on the ground, who, for example, blow up railway tanks. In addition, there are individual actions, Shemetovets suspects , because evidence of vandalism is shared online.

Russia’s opposition is not limited to railways. There are also volunteers from Belarus in Ukraine Active in battles against the Russian army. Opposition leader Latushka said the fighting there and the sabotage of the railways did not mean opposition to Lukashenko had become more violent. “We promise the fighters against Russian aggression not to pursue them as soon as Lukashenko is overthrown while we are in power,” he added.

Internet supporters say they are open to talking with the Belarusian authorities. “If they need railways to withdraw military equipment from Ukraine, we will cooperate,” he added.