“Separate” agents, detailed information, sabotage… How resistance networks work in Atesh, Crimea

Members of this network are Ukraine’s eyes and ears in Crimea. Franceinfo had access to exclusive audio documents to better understand how this resistance is organized.

They are the eyes and ears of Ukrainians in Crimea. At great risk to their lives, resistance fighters in the region, which has been occupied for ten years, are sending information to Ukraine to destroy Russian military sites. These resistance fighters transmit any information on Russian positions or troop movements through messaging or secure applications. Most of this data is deleted once verified and used.

However, we obtained ten recordings. Resistance fighters who bring anything that can help the Ukrainian army from the Crimean lands. Here are the two recording transcripts: “Three minutes after passing the fuel tank, there came a passenger train. It passed in the same direction towards Jenkoi. There were about 15 wagons. I looked at the train schedule, it was not “There are no passenger trains at that time. They are soldiers of this fleet.”

“The rest of the M4 road has big trucks of the Ural type. They have to go to Ukraine on the night of July 7-8, but I think they will have sand in their tanks and with a few more nice gifts they will win’ not too far away.”

Is this type of information sufficient to produce results? Among the biggest “supports” the attaché has published is the strike on the Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol in September. There are other activities that are far less spectacular but which still raise suspicions in the minds of Russians. As evidenced by the radio exchange where we hear the Russian commander in his base, he is not very calm: “Beginning! Hey, there’s a news saying that the fire is planned by the people of Atesh, by saboteurs, by people waiting for the Ukrainians. In another recording, a Russian woman can be heard telling her compatriots to tear down Atesh posters that have started appearing in Crimean towns. This is talking about a Russian citizen “terrorist group“

“Our agents work in isolation”

It is difficult to know how many people are in the Atesh network. No one can confirm this kind of data but we were told about 1,800 people including those on the soil of the Russian Federation at the moment. There are two categories of resistance. There are active agents, they are infiltrators on Russian bases. leading them to commit acts of vandalism. And then there are informants who send photos and geolocation data. This information is then transmitted to their coordinator, who is located in sovereign Ukraine, not in the occupied zone. And then it is up to him to liaise with the armed forces.

We were able to speak with one of the five coordinators in charge of Crimea. His name is Jokhar, he is 28 years old. He is a citizen, he emphasizes this point. “Our agents work in isolation,

Zohar says. It is very rare that two of them are in action. We sometimes get information from officers on military bases, from sergeants or from ordinary soldiers working inside.”

“This is more detailed and specific information such as the hours of operation at the airfield, when their planes take off and what types of planes they are. Sometimes it can be details about patrols and units that protect strategic locations.”

Dzhokhar, coordinator in charge of Crimea

at franceinfo

We must understand how dangerous it is for these resistance fighters to pass on this information. In Crimea, cell phones and computers are searched at checkpoints, communications are monitored, sometimes even with software that recovers deleted files. Even for peaceful Crimeans, with no connection to the resistance, there is no free speech. Usman called his family in Crimea against us. They talked about trivia, the weather or the cost of living but never a word about the war. “We can only use figurative language with our own codesUsman explains. For example, when you want to talk about Putin, you call him by a woman’s first name that starts with P. Not a very common name like Pakise and you say for example: ‘Oh that this Pakise would finally die!’ This is how we create this kind of code in our private conversations.”

The Atesh network, which means “fire” in the Crimean Tatar language, guarantees that none of its members have been arrested but carries the image of Melitopol resistance fighters killed by Russian forces for publishing pro-Ukraine messages on social networks.