THE hacker collective Anonymous has claimed it has successfully breached over 300 Russian websites and is offering troops £40,000 to give up their tanks.
The offer to buy tanks from Russian soldiers has emerged after reports that Russia refused to open its stock market this morning.
It initially said that they would delay opening it for a few hours, before eventually stating that it would remain closed all day.
The notorious hacker community claims to have collected over RUB 1billion (£7.8million) and are offering tank crews RUB 5 million (£39,000) for each surrendered tank, according to Ukrainian media.
Russian troops are advised by the collective to surrender with a white flag and use the password "million" to show that they accept the collective’s terms.
The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine has also reportedly said that it will guarantee amnesty to surrendering forces.
Anonymous are allegedly telling Russian soldiers: “Russian soldiers, everyone who wants to live with their families, children, and not die, the Anonymous global community has collected RUB 1,225,043 in bitcoin to help you."
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The move comes after the notorious international hacking collective declared war on Putin’s war machine in response to a call to arms from the Ukrainian government.
Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov reportedly announced the creation of a Telegram channel for the IT Army of Ukraine on Saturday.
He said: “We are creating an IT army. We need digital talents. All operational tasks will be given here. There will be tasks for everyone. We continue to fight on the cyber front.”
He added: “In 2022 modern technologies are one of the best responses to tanks, rockets and missiles.
“I’ve addressed to the biggest tech giants to support the sanctions for Russian Federation. We asked them to help us stop this outrageous aggression on our people!”
🔵 Read our Russia – Ukraine live blog for the very latest updates
The highly decentralised hacking collective that first made headlines over 10 years ago with the Occupy Wall Street movement has reportedly been multiplying attacks on Russian targets over the weekend, claiming over 300 successful breaches, including the state-run news agency TASS.
This also includes allegedly hacking into Russian TV so that all channels played Ukrainian folk songs, as seen in this footage, with the pro-Ukraine hackers claiming the hack saying that they are from Anonymous.
The hacking collective also claimed to have taken down state-owned media outlet RT (Russia Today) which is about to be banned in the European Union along with state-funded news outlet Sputnik, with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, saying: “We will ban the Kremlin’s media machine in the EU.
The state-owned Russia Today and Sputnik, and their subsidiaries, will no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin’s war.”
The hacker group said on Twitter that 300 websites belonging to Russian government agencies, state media outlets, banks, as well as websites of leading Belarusian banks, including Belarusbank, Priorbank and Belinvestbank, had all been hacked. They said: “Access to the sites belarusbank.by, priorbank.by, belinvestbank.by is denied.”
The regular websites have been replaced with a message calling for an end to the hostilities.
"Dear citizens. We urge you to stop this madness, do not send your sons and husbands to certain death," the message read. "Putin is forcing us to lie and is putting us in danger."
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Anonymous also reportedly leaked a database obtained from the Sberbank of Russia.
They also said that they had taken down the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection’s website, as well as the government website of the Chechen Republic, whose leader Ramzan Kadyrov is friendly with Russian strongman Putin.
Numerous accounts linked to the loose and highly decentralised collective published messages, images and videos calling on hackers of the world to unite against Russia after “dictator” Putin invaded his neighbour last week.
They said: "Anonymous takes down more than 300+ Russian government, state media and banks websites in the last 48 hours, with most of them currently offline."
Messages said to be from members of the collective and videos are being shared on social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook and Reddit with the hashtags #OpRussia, #StopRussia, #OpKremlin and #FreeUkraine, among others, calling on the world’s hackers to target Russian websites.
Many have already claimed to have successfully breached Russian platforms, including the Russian Ministry of Defence, allegedly posting a massive database online that includes emails, passwords and telephone numbers.
After that, Ukrainians allegedly began to call the employees of the Russian department and ask if the aggressor country was planning on taking the bodies of dead Russian soldiers home at any point.
The collective said on social media: “Hackers all around the world: target Russia in the name of #anonymous let them know we do not forgive, we do not forget. Anonymous owns fascists, always.”
Ceasefire talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials began on the Belarusian border on Monday as Russia faced deepening economic isolation four days after invading Ukraine.
Russia says its forces have intervened in Ukraine in a "special military operation" to demilitarise the country.
The state communications regulator has warned local media outlets and foreign tech firms against what it says are false depictions of Russia's activities in materials published online.
"We have been isolated from the whole world, they have stopped buying oil and gas. In a few years we will be living like North Korea," the message continued. "What is this for? So that Putin can get into the history books? It's not our war, let's stop him!"
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