Slogan(s) "PRO BONO PUBLICO" Commercial No Motto "PRO BONO PUBLICO" | Website psb4ukr.org Current status Online | |
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Owner NGO ″Myrotvorets centre″ Launched December 15, 2014; 2 years ago (2014-12-15) Similar Come Back Alive, C14, Russian Aerospace Forces | ||
Mirotvorets, or Myrotvorets (Ukrainian: Миротворець /mɪrɔ'tvɔrɛt͡sʲ/, lit. "Peacemaker"), is a Ukrainian Kiev-based website that purports to reveal personal information of people who are considered to be "enemies of Ukraine", or, as the website itself states, "whose actions have signs of crimes against the national security of Ukraine, peace, human security, and the international law". It was launched in December 2014 by Ukrainian politician and activist Georgy Tuka, then a head of "Narodny Tyl", who since 29 April 2016 serves in the Ukrainian government as Deputy Minister for the "temporarily occupied territories and internally displaced persons" and before that, in 2015–2016, was the governor of Luhansk Oblast ("chairman of the Luhansk Regional Military and Civil Administration") appointed by president Petro Poroshenko.
Contents
The site reflects the work of NGO ″Myrotvorets centre″, led by Roman Zaitsev, former employee of Lugansk Security Service of Ukraine office.
The website is curated by the government law-enforcement and intelligence agency Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and promoted by Advisor to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Anton Gerashenko. In October 2015 he proposed to add a special section titled "Putin's crimes in Syria and Middle East" dedicated for personal data of Russian military personnel of the operation in Syria collected by Inform Napalm, as he cited from his correspondence: in order "to help ISIS take revenge" on them "in accordance with Sharia law".
In April 2015 the website published the home addresses of Ukrainian writer Oles Buzina and former Verkhovna Rada parliamentarian Oleg Kalashnikov just days before they were assassinated.
On 7 May 2016 the website published the personal data of 4,508 journalists and other media members from all over the world who had worked (or had received accreditation to work) on the war in the uncontrolled government territory of Donbass, and therefore "cooperated with terrorists." There were phone numbers, email addresses, and some countries and cities of residence of Ukrainian and foreign journalists received from the hacked database of "Donetsk People's Republic Ministry of State Security"; journalists and support staff provided these data to be "accredited" by Russia-controlled militants. In response, the Security Service of Ukraine issued a statement that it found no violations of Ukrainian law by "Myrotvorets."
The slogan of the centre's website and the centre itself is a Latin saying: Pro bono publico (for the public good).
History
Myrotvorets Centre began to develop the project in summer 2014, during the War in Donbass. The project was launched in December 2014 as part of the work of the volunteer group known as "Narodny Tyl". The first true leader and participants were not reported, for their safety. For distraction a leader was presented as "Narodny Tyl" leader Ukrainian politician and activist Georgy Tuka, who since 29 April 2016 serves in the Ukrainian government as Deputy Minister for "temporarily occupied territories and internally displaced persons" and before that, in 2015–2016, served as the governor of Luhansk Oblast ("chairman of the Luhansk Regional Military and Civil Administration") appointed by president Petro Poroshenko.
The director of the Centre is Roman Zaitsev, a former employee of the territorial office of the SBU in the Luhansk region. At the Centre, there are about 250 people living both in Ukraine and abroad. During the first two years the Centre incurred losses in killed, wounded and missing people.
The website is promoted by Anton Gerashchenko, advisor to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. The centre is affiliated with the government law-enforcement and intelligence agency, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Activity
The "Myrotvorets" leader states that the centre's objective is to provide information and advice to the executive authorities, to finally bring peace and harmony in Ukraine. In its work the centre pays special attention to expressions of "separatist and terrorist activities" on the territory of Ukraine.
Sources of information for the centre are primarily public materials posted on the Internet, publications and more. Much like other volunteer organisations, the centre widely uses OSINT methods. In addition, the centre uses information provided by individuals on a confidential basis. Under current Ukrainian law, the centre does not use information contained in anonymous appeals.
In October 2015, the centre added a special section titled "Putin's crimes in Syria and the Middle East" dedicated to providing personal data of Russian military personnel involved in the operation in Syria, according to Russian media "to help ISIS take revenge" on the Russian pilots "in accordance with Sharia law". Myrotvorets' actions caused extremely strong reactions from the Russian presidential administration and among Russian experts in military affairs and special operations. As stated in the website InformNapalm, an important element of the operation was to compare the numbers of Su-24 from the Russian airbase "Shagol" and the same type of aircraft, overturned in Syria. A few days after the operation began, Russian TV started to hide the numbers of military aircraft based in Syria for their video shoots. After the information was published, the Investigative Committee of Russia launched criminal proceedings against Anton Gerashchenko for "public calls to terrorism."
In February 2016, members of the centre took part in the operation of mobile groups against illegal transport of cargo through the line of armed conflict in the War in Donbass.
Myrotvorets Centre repeatedly provided information on the participation of foreign nationals in the armed conflict, on the side of pro-Russian separatists. In early March 2016, due to the materials published by the centre, law enforcement authorities in Bulgaria initiated criminal proceedings against George Bliznakov, a Bulgarian citizen. Similar materials are being considered regarding other Bulgarian citizens.
According to the head of the centre, 4.5 thousand people were in the file cabinet in October 2014; December 16 – 7.5 thousand; January 2015 – 9000; April 13 – 30 thousand. In October of that year – 45 thousand people; by March 21, 2016 – 57775 people; by 27 January 2017 - more than 102 thousand. The most complete database contains residents of the Crimea.
Controversy
In April 2015, Myrotvorets published the home addresses of Ukrainian writer Oles Buzina and former Verkhovna Rada parliamentarian Oleg Kalashnikov, just days before they were assassinated.
After the site published the data of various journalists, Valeriya Lutkovska, Ukrainian lawyer and Ombudswoman of Ukraine since April 2012, demanded both the website and the Centre be shut down. Ukrainian editor and journalist Vitaly Portnikov and Ukrainian military expert and blogger Dmytro Tymchuk have compared accreditation of a Ukrainian journalist in Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic to accreditation of an Israeli journalist with the Hamas "Ministry of Information" in Gaza.
On the 2nd of June 2016, G7 ambassadors to Kyiv released a joint statement expressing deep concern about disclosures of journalists' personal data on the Myrotvorets website and called on the Myrotvorets team to withdraw personal data from public access. The next day President Petro Poroshenko at a press conference condemned the publication of journalists' personal data, but stressed that he is extremely limited in terms of influence over the "Myrotvorets" website, which is curated by the government law-enforcement and intelligence agency Security Service of Ukraine; thus he is not going to press for a policy change.