Ukraine gives award to foreign vigilantes for hacks on Russia (2024)
bbc.comDigital letters of marque ought to be a thing.
Yeah this is more privateering than vigilantism.
(2024)
More recently, local hackers awarded by military also (March 2025) https://therecord.media/ukraine-intel-service-honors-civilia...
They should open up drone control operations to volunteers who want to help out.
I hope Kristopher Kortright stays well. He's done great work here.
But it seems a major OpSec flaw to allow one's identity to be publicized after cracking into the wartime systems of a genocidally aggressive state known for epidemic levels of "window cancer" and killing people on other nations territory using exotic and non-exotic means (polonium tes, nerve agents, or just dozens of bullets and running over with at truck, all well-publicized Russian murders)...
As an American citizen you're pretty safe. I don't think there's even a single record of an American being targeted on American soil. They tend to only go after their own for diplomatic reasons.
That said I think regardless there's a lot of value seeing ordinary people stand up to dictators because frankly that's what you need given the increasing tendency to intimidate people in civic life.
(2024)
Seems typical: illegal actions against people you don't like? win an award. illegal actions against people you like? we need prison time and sanctions.
I think it's a bit of bad faith to characterize "aggressor in an unprovoked, expansionist war against your country and who has killed or wounded 400,000 of your countrymen" as simply "people you don't like".
In wars it's important who started first. In Russia-Ukraine war this is quite clear.
Please, expand on your thesis.
To state the obvious: Russia started the war.
You may be surprised by the amount of people who dispute this... it's depraved
Yeah, that's war in a nutshell.
Illegal under which legal system? International law mostly allows countries to fight back against invasion.
It's like tipping somebody on wanted list versus resisting masked government official, something like ICE. We absolutely need to level the playing field here.
Wait until you learn killing is legal during wartime... Absolutely revolting
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