War in Ukraine: cyberattacks, evidence… how Russia is trying to erase the traces of its crimes ?

La Russie tente de détruite ou falsifier les preuves de ses crimes de guerre. (illustration) Unsplash

Vladimir Putin is already thinking about the post-war period, in particular by wanting to get his hands on evidence of war crimes perpetrated by his army in Ukraine.

As the situation in northern Ukraine becomes critical for Volodymyr Zelensky's men, kyiv's allied countries must face another war. Russia is increasing cyberattacks and seeking to recover evidence of its war crimes, in particular to escape justice, reports the magazine Géo.

"Avoid prosecution"

If the conflict continues between the two countries, the Kremlin is already looking ahead to the post-war era. Since the beginning of the '"special military operation" launched by Putin in September 2022, cyber attacks against Ukraine and its allied countries (namely Poland, Lithuania, ;rsquo;Germany, the United States and Estonia) have multiplied considerably and number in the thousands.

Vladimir Putin's concerns are not so much about the difficulties encountered on the front but rather about what could happen for Russia after the conflict, says Rhiannon Neilsen, cybersecurity researcher at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) of Stanford University, cited by War on the Rocks.

"Russian hackers from the Federal Security Services and the Main Intelligence Directorate reportedly targeted the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine, the entity responsible for documenting war crimes committed by Russian fighters on Ukrainian soil", has she underlined while adding that the International Criminal Court was also a victim.

"Avoiding prosecution", such is Russia’s objective in wanting to get its hands on the evidence of war crimes committed by his army.

The cybercrime researcher has little hesitation about the motivations for these attacks. "If the Russian hackers manage to recover information relating to war crimes cases, their goal (according to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office) will be to extradite suspected perpetrators affiliated with Russia so that they escape prosecution. They can also make it appear that Ukrainian forces have committed war crimes: mutilation of Russian corpses, rape of Russian soldiers or torture of Russian prisoners of war", explained& nbsp;Rhiannon Neilsen.