Is Russia opening a new front in Belarus?
Ukraine prepares for a new attack from the north, possibly targeting Kyiv; Belarusian anonymous hackers show why it is a risky move for Lukashenko.
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By Paula
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Anxious employees rushed around the room, pulling out servers and frantically trying to bring them back online. Nothing was working at the Khimvolokno plant in Hrodna, Belarus, which produces nylon threads for Russian body armor and helmets. A significant part of the enterprise’s IT infrastructure was effectively paralyzed.
In the middle of the chaos, they failed to notice that they were being watched the entire time live via hacked CCTV cameras inside the facility. It was one of the recent public cyberattacks carried out by the Belarusian anonymous hacker community ‘Cyber Partisans,’ launched on the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale war this February.
“It’s rare that we get to observe what happens [on-site] after an attack is completed…It’s always entertaining,” said one of the hackers, who goes by the name Vasilek.
There have already been at least 50 publicly known cyberattacks by a group of around 90 volunteers, targeting key state institutions and infrastructure in Russia and Belarus that are aiding Russia’s war effort. After Russian troops used Belarusian territory to invade northern Ukraine in 2022, Minsk has continued providing logistical, infrastructural, and military support to the Kremlin.
Russia does not seem to be stopping its pressure on Lukashenko to drag the country deeper into the war. This week, Ukraine warned that Russia may consider reopening the front from Belarus, potentially launching an offensive toward the Chernihiv-Kyiv axis or even against one of NATO’s member states. If it happens, it would signal that Belarus has become a full satellite of the Kremlin, stripped of any real sovereignty. The Cyber Partisans have made it their mission to make Belarus’s support as costly as possible.
After the paywall:
Behind the scenes of the Belarusian anonymous hacker community operations;
How did the Cyber Partisans slow down the Russian offensive in 2022?
Why is entering the war directly dangerous for Lukashenko?
What is the hacker’s plan if Belarusian territory becomes a launchpad for a Russian offensive again?