Russia has begged its citizens to quit using dating apps and warned them to start curbing social media usage in the regions being hammered by Ukrainian forces following their surprise cross-border incursion.
“The use of online dating services is strongly discouraged,” Russia’s interior ministry warned in a post on its official Telegram channel.
Ukrainian forces are also connecting to “unprotected CCTV cameras remotely, viewing everything — from private yards to roads and highways of strategic importance,” the ministry added.
Separately, Russia’s state telecommunications monitoring service said Wednesday it had recorded mass disruptions in the popular Telegram and WhatsApp messaging apps.
The warnings, meanwhile, came as Ukraine attacked Moscow on Wednesday with one of the biggest drone strikes since the war began in February 2022.
Ukrainian forces have been using US-manufactured HIMARS rocket systems to destroy pontoon bridges and engineering equipment in Kursk, Ukraine’s military said Wednesday.
The attacks on the bridges could potentially trap Russian forces between the river, the Ukrainian advance and the Ukrainian border.
Washington hasn’t publicly commented on the use of US-made weapons in Kursk region.
With their unexpected cross-border incursion, Russian forces have urged their citizens to stop using dating apps and issued warnings to begin limiting social media usage in the areas they are attacking.
In an official Telegram channel post, Russia’s interior ministry cautioned, “Use of online dating services is strongly discouraged.”.
The adversary makes active use of these resources to obtain intelligence. “.
Citizens in Kursk, Belgorod, and Bryansk—three border regions that Ukrainian forces are targeting as Kyiv continues its onslaught of incursions—were alerted late on Tuesday.
Apart from attempting to restrict the use of dating apps, the ministry released a set of guidelines cautioning individuals against clicking on links in messages, watching videos featuring military vehicles, and deleting all geotagging on social media.
The post claimed that the enemy uses these tags to track down social media users in real time and to disclose the precise locations of security and military personnel.
Additionally, the ministry said that Ukrainian forces are remotely accessing “unprotected CCTV cameras, viewing everything — from private yards to roads and highways of strategic importance.”.
Separately, on Wednesday, the official Russian telecoms monitoring agency reported that it had observed widespread disruptions in the widely used WhatsApp and Telegram messaging services.
It did not go into detail about what caused the disruptions.
The warnings coincided with Ukraine’s Wednesday attack on Moscow, which included one of the largest drone strikes since the start of the war in February 2022.
According to Russia’s defense ministry, 45 drones were shot down over Russian territory over the course of the night, with 11 of them over the Moscow region, 23 over Bryansk, 6 over Belgorod, 3 over Kaluga, and 2 over Kursk.
“This was one of the biggest attempts of all time to attack Moscow using drones,” Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin stated on his Telegram channel. He also mentioned that the capital’s robust defenses allowed for the downing of the drones before they could reach their intended targets.
Unverified footage appeared in Russian media, purporting to show drones flying over Moscow before being shot down by air defense systems.
Kyiv has been bombarding Russia with drones while Ukraine has been mired in a land conflict in the east of the country where the Russians have been moving forward slowly at great cost to both sides.
In an effort to reduce Russia’s ability to fight, Ukraine has repeatedly targeted the nation’s capital in addition to oil refineries and airfields.
The Ukrainian military announced on Wednesday that it has been destroying pontoon bridges and engineering equipment in Kursk using HIMARS rocket systems made in the US.
According to Russian officials, since Kyiv began its incursion on August, Ukraine has destroyed or damaged at least three bridges over the Seym River. 6 — traveling a maximum of 39 miles.
Russian forces might be caught between the river, the Ukrainian advance, and the Ukrainian border if the bridges are attacked.
Regarding the use of US-made weaponry in the Kursk region, Washington has not made any statements in public.
employing post wires.
