Release: Donetsk People's Republic (1.4 TB)

More than 1 million emails and documents from Donetsk People's Republic in occupied eastern Ukraine. DPR was created by Russian-backed paramilitaries in 2014 and illegally annexed by Russia in 2022

Sample document from the leak, found by Kiborg News, who write: “The information concerns orphans and children left without parental care who were taken from occupied Donetsk region to the Russian Federation. It is about the fact that at that time the children were in temporary accommodation centers in the Rostov and Kursk regions”

We have added to the archive 1.4 terabytes of data from the state structure of the unrecognized state the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). The DPR was founded by Russian-backed paramilitaries in 2014, and then illegally annexed by Russia during the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

This email dataset may contain more evidence of Russian war crimes against the children of Ukraine. Forced displacement is a war crime that is already under investigation at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. According to Kiborg, in the Donetsk emails:

In September 2022, the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy of the occupied Donetsk region notified heads of guardianship authorities of the movement of children from the occupied territories in a document signed by acting minister Larisa Tolstikina.

Documents found in the leak also include financial budgets and funding projections:

The total amount reaches more than 40 million rubles. Expenses are mainly aimed at paying for the activities of public movements, organizations, centers, such as "MyZaDobro" or "Parade for one veteran". 

This dataset is public, and can be downloaded from the torrents linked to in the sidebar of our index article, or from our data server.

In addition, we have indexed these emails in our search engine Hunter. User accounts for Hunter are restricted to people who have a background of publishing their research. Researchers and journalists with a history of publication can get in touch with us to request access to Hunter.

Disclaimer

This dataset was released in the buildup to, in the midst of, or in the aftermath of a cyberwar or hybrid war. Therefore, there is an increased chance of malware, ulterior motives and altered or implanted data, or false flags/fake personas. As a result, we encourage readers, researchers and journalists to take additional care with the data.

This is a standard disclaimer that will be added to all datasets in the Cyberwar category, even absent specific suspicions.

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