SBU blocks 300 pro-Russian websites this year

"The SBU's department for counter-intelligence protection of the state's interests in the field of information security also blocked access to more than 300 Internet resources used by the Russian Federation during its hybrid war against Ukraine, as well as by international criminal groups to spread destructive information content," the report said.

In addition, according to the SBU, investigating units of the special service are conducting pre-trial investigations as part of 83 criminal cases against the owners and administrators of anti-Ukrainian communities that deliberately spread calls for the overthrow of the constitutional system and state power, large-scale disturbances and other unlawful actions. This year, as part of these criminal cases, 23 persons were declared suspects and 15 indictments were issued, the SBU said.

The SBU said that during 2018, as part of forestalling offenses in the information sphere, preventive measures had been taken with respect to 220 administrators of Internet communities who distributed on the Internet the materials of destructive content to the audience of more than ten million users.

"Thus, the service did not allow the commission of crimes, the responsibility for which is envisaged in the Criminal Code of Ukraine, namely Article 109 (actions aimed at the forcible change or overthrow of the constitutional order or the seizure of state power), Article 110 (encroachment on the territorial integrity and integrity of Ukraine) and Article 258-3 (the creation of a terrorist group or terrorist organization)," the report said.

In this regard, the SBU calls on Internet users to critically evaluate the information content distributed in social media and remember that in the conditions of Russia's hybrid aggression against Ukraine, key methods of Russian special services are the tendentious dissemination of materials and misinformation for manipulative influence on the public consciousness of Ukrainian citizens.