Ukraine’s defence ministry has fired a top commander after photos emerged of a group of emaciated soldiers who have been left on the frontline for months without proper food and water. The scandal erupted after the wife of one of the soldiers, Anastasiia Silchuk, posted the images on social media. The four men appeared to be pale and visibly malnourished, with prominent ribcages and thin arms. The soldiers had spent eight months defending a shrinking bulge of territory on the left bank of the Oskil River, near the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Kupiansk, their relatives said. Supplies of food and medicines could only be flown in by drone. “When the lads arrived at the frontlines, they weighed over 80–90kg. But now they weigh around 50kg,” Silchuk posted. After one delivery, she said, no more food turned up for 10 days. The soldiers were forced to drink rainwater and melt snow to survive. “The longest they went without food was 17 days. They weren’t listened to on the radio, or perhaps no one wanted to listen to them. My husband shouted and begged, saying there was no food and water,” she said, adding that the problem was bigger than just one case. Another relative, Ivanna Poberezhnyuk, said the soldiers from the 14th Separate Mechanised brigade were left in an extremely difficult situation. “Fighters are losing consciousness from hunger,” she said. Her father was evacuated from the position, but others were still stuck there, she added.

Ukraine’s general staff said it had replaced the commander, who was responsible for feeding the soldiers. The brigade acknowledged there were logistical problems and said deliveries were only possible by air because their location was extremely close to enemy lines. A spokesperson said: “Everything is done by drones. The Russians pay maximum attention to the deliveries of food, ammunition and fuel. They intercept and shoot down as much as possible. Sometimes they are not so interested in our military equipment as in logistics, actually.” Since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in early 2022, the grey zone between the two sides has expanded dramatically. Both use drones extensively for surveillance and to target armoured vehicles and infantry. Soldiers are forced to walk 10-15km to reach their forward positions. In recent months, Ukraine has been using more and more unmanned ground robots to send supplies into exposed areas and to evacuate wounded soldiers. In the Kupiansk sector, Russia has destroyed bridges across the Oskil River in an attempt to cut off Ukrainian forces on the left bank.

Silchuk said on Friday that conditions have improved since the issue came to light. “There’s a new commander,” she posted. “He rang us and said the situation is being resolved. And it really is. My husband wrote to me that he’s just eaten more than he has in the last eight months.” She added: “The lads are eating little by little at the moment. Their stomachs have shrunk, and they don’t know whether they will have food tomorrow or not. I believe this situation needed to be publicised. There needs to be a rotation; the boys require medical treatment.” Ukraine’s military command said it had launched an investigation. “It should be noted that recently another shipment of food was delivered to the position of the 14th Infantry brigade. If favourable conditions exist, an immediate evacuation of our soldiers will be carried out,” it added.

Kraut media is currently in an uproar over the fact that several high-ranking government officials had their data stolen after falling for phishing messages disguised as coming from the Signal messaging app. Deeply unserious headlines now accuse Russia of allegedly jeopardizing Germany’s national security by “hacking Signal,” even though the perpetrators have not yet been identified and the app itself was not actually compromised in any way.

According to media reports, several German politicians have fallen victim to a phishing campaign in recent weeks. According to information from Der Spiegel, Education Minister Karin Prien (CDU), Construction Minister Verena Hubertz (SPD), and Bundestag President Julia Klöckner (CDU) have been affected. Other politicians, journalists, and military personnel have also been targeted.

In the current phishing attack, the attackers are posing as Signal support staff, among other things. Users are asked to enter their PIN or scan a code. If they do so, the attackers gain access to messages, photos, and documents that have been shared via Signal. Despite lacking evidence, Russia is blamed for the attack.

While German government has not yet officially attributed the attack to Russia, media like Die Zeit has nonetheless set its sights on the country: Berlins reluctance could supposedly “be related to the fact that it might compromise intelligence gathered by allied intelligence services.” But according to the Die Zeit article, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, which is investigating the alleged espionage in Germany, has also not yet commented on a possible instigator. Die Zeit adds, however, without getting specific or offering citations, that the German government “apparently” assumes “presumed” Russian responsibility.

It can be noted: The perpetrators are apparently still unknown, and the methods they used (phishing messages) do not, in and of themselves, initially point to a “state actor” at all, as is now being claimed everywhere. The phishing scam is also not “sophisticated” or “perfidious” or in any way a Russian specialty: The scam is widely known and can be carried out without much effort (and without a “state actor” backing it).

It is just as easy to fend off such campaigns by following well-known rules. Given the apparent lack of IT security expertise among many politicians, one can only underscore what Linus Neumann of the Chaos Computer Club says about the incident:

It wasn’t Signal that was hacked, but Ms. Klöckner herself. For someone holding the second-highest office in the country, this is a significant personal failure, but it is part of a system that made it possible.

The fact that the circumstances regarding the perpetrators remain unclear has not stopped some politicians and journalists from exploiting the phishing campaign for their anti-Russian agenda and simply giving the impression that there is genuine evidence the campaign originated from the Russian government. For example, the Süddeutsche Zeitung is already reporting without any reservations of a “Russian espionage attack”:

Russia’s espionage attack on top German politicians has sparked a heated debate over the security of government communications.

The newspaper cites German security authorities as its source: they are reported to be “certain” that the phishing attack was “once again” orchestrated from Russia. The German government shares this assessment, though it’s not explained in what terms or on what factual basis. The U.S. FBI is cited as another source for the claim that the Russian state was responsible, and some media outlets also mention the Dutch intelligence agency. As usual, it remains unclear how these sources arrived at their supposedly certain identification of the perpetrators.

In some quarters, meanwhile, trust in such claims knows no bounds. There, the perpetrators are already deemed certain, even if this leads to contradictions: For instance, Konstantin von Notz, deputy leader of the Green Party parliamentary group, tells the ARD’s Berlin bureau that it is not easy to identify the source of the attacks. On the other hand, he declares with absolute conviction, as if a proper court had identified the guilty parties in a transparent proceeding:

This espionage attack must serve as a wake-up call for all security agencies. We must understand what Moscow’s agenda is here: Russia has declared Germany an enemy. These attacks are real and pose a genuine threat to our security. Every day, agents are operating here, spying and planning acts of sabotage.

CDU security policy specialist Roderich Kiesewetter goes a step further and, despite the nonexistant factual basis, is not surprisingly calling for radical measures. “Russia must be stopped, at every level,” he told the Handelsblatt. “We should implement every measure we can to credibly strengthen our deterrence.” Kiesewetter advocated, among other things, expelling Russian diplomats and supplying “Taurus” cruise missiles to Ukraine.

According to media reports, CDU lawmaker Marc Henrichmann, chairman of the Bundestag’s Parliamentary Control Panel (PKGr) for the oversight of intelligence services, became the first German politician to blame Russia for the phishing attempts on Friday:

The latest phishing attempt from Russia targeting German politicians and journalists is a wake-up call for all of us.

As the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports, government officials actually have access to extremely secure communication channels, such as specially encrypted devices and lines. However, according to the paper, these are considered complicated and impractical because popular apps cannot be used through them. Furthermore, according to the Federal Office for Information Security, 62 percent of Germans have received phishing messages at some point. Obviously, the method is neither new nor “sophisticated” nor “Russian,” and it doesn’t require a “state actor” either. The FBI could warn all governments (and all private citizens) year-round about such widespread attacks. And Russians are the only ones who are supposed to have mastered this trick?

Based on current information, it is much more likely that the German politicians involved fell victim to their own complacency and ignorance rather than to some sinister force. That would, of course, be very embarrassing for those involved; an exaggerated Russian bogeyman is thus conjured provide a welcome distraction from their own failures while simultaneously further entrenching anti-Russian hysteria.

On a different note, there is, thanks to U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden, hard evidence that another country has been conducting massive espionage operations against German politicians, including the Chancellors office, and is presumably still engaging in such practices.