The 960th Assault Aviation Regiment is based in Primorsko-Akhtarsk on the Russian side of the Sea of Azov but now operates from the occupied Crimean Peninsula. The regiment is accused of being behind a series of deadly attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine. Among other things, the attack on the theater building in Mariupol on March 16, 2022, when several hundred civilians were killed. According to the news agency AP, it may have been as many as 600.
A week earlier should the regiment had attacked a children’s hospital in the same city with many injured as a result.
According to Ukrainian data, the regiment has carried out hundreds of attacks on homes and businesses in southern Ukraine with its Su-25 aircraft. For this, the regiment was rewarded by Russian President Vladimir Putin as late as March 18.
Now the Ukrainian hacker group Cyber Resistance has managed to reveal who was responsible for the raid and a series of other attacks, writes Inform Napalm, a network of volunteers founded by Ukrainian journalist Roman Burko and military expert Irakli Komaxidze. The disclosure was made by hacking Russian military databases, but also by using social networks and by gaining access to password-protected information on the website of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
That way could Cyber Resistance obtain the name of the responsible commander of the 960th Assault Aviation Regiment – Colonel Sergey Valeryvych Atroshenko. In addition, the group has posted a large number of documents and images in its Telegram channel Кибер Спротив.
By building fake Russian profiles and pretending to support the war in Ukraine, the group managed to identify the wife of Colonel Atroshenko. The group contacted her, posing as one of the colonel’s subordinates. After a few emails, the group managed to convince her to persuade eleven other wives and fiancees to pose for a photo that would be used to boost the morale of their husbands.
The Kyiv Post notes that when a commanding wife asks for something, the subordinates’ wives obey.
In the picture then posed the women then wearing their men’s medal-embellished uniform jackets and with a Su-25 plane in the background. Most in high-heeled shoes and many with short skirts.
Photo: Inform Napalm
Kyiv Post writes that the hacking of various military databases gave the Cyber Resistance access to the names, ranks, home addresses, passport numbers and personal contact information of the wives’ spouses and other pilots. But also manuals for Russian military air traffic control operating instructions for a special radar system used by the Russian Air Force.
All information has been handed over to the Ukrainian Defense Command.
According to Inform Napalm, they have so far only published parts of the material they have come across because a report of war crimes against Sergej Atroshenko is being prepared for the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
