So long, my lover – Russia has asked its citizens to avoid dating apps (Picture: Getty)
As Ukraine continues to make gains in Kursk, officials have warned Russians to avoid using dating apps for national security reasons.
A warning was issued by the The Department for Combating Illegal Use of Information and Communication Technologies, urging those in Byransk, Kursk and Belgorod Regions to abstain from the apps.
The ministry told a group of journalists: ‘The enemy (Ukraine) is massively identifying IP ranges in our territories and connecting to unprotected video surveillance cameras remotely, viewing everything from private yards to roads and highways of strategic importance.
‘In this regard, if there is no urgent need, it is better not to use video surveillance cameras.
‘It is highly discouraged to use online dating services. The enemy actively uses such resources for the covert collection of information.’
There have been instances of Ukrainians collecting intelligence from unwitting Russian soldiers on dating apps.
Russia warned that the ‘enemy’ collects information through them (Picture: Getty)
In 2022, a Ukrainian teenager flirted with Russian soldiers to get them to send locations used to house officers and give away sensitive information to help Kyiv track down the invading forces.
The warning from Russia comes just weeks after Kyiv launched an ambitious cross-border incursion into Kursk, Russia.
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They’ve since captured vast swathes of Russian territory and provide a much-needed morale boost to Ukraine’s war-weary population.
Kyiv has destroyed all three of the bridges over the Seim River in Russia’s Kursk region.
Ukraine hopes that by attacking the bridges over the Seim River, they could potentially trap Putin’s forces between the Russian-Ukrainian borders and the advancing Ukrainian attack force.
The attacks already appear to be slowing down Russia’s response to the Kursk incursion, which was launched on August 6.
By destroying the bridges it prevents Russian troops from accessing the captured areas and means Kremlin forces are now reliant on receiving military equipment via makeshift pontoon bridges, according to analysts.
A Russian military investigator confirmed on Monday that Ukraine had ‘totally destroyed’ one bridge and damaged two others in the area, although the full extent of the damage remains unclear.
‘As a result of targeted shelling with the use of rocket and artillery weapons against residential buildings and civilian infrastructure in the Karyzh village … a third bridge over the Seim River was damaged,’ the unnamed representative for Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a video published on the Telegram channel of Russian state TV anchor Vladimir Solovyov.
Since the incursion into the Kursk region began, the Ukrainian army has captured 480 square miles and 92 settlements, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
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