Ukrainian public figure and head of the Center for Aerial Intelligence Support and the Victory Drones project, Maria Berlinska, published a table with data on Ukrainian drone manufacturers. For this, she was thanked by Russian osinters and criticized by Ukrainians. How Berlinska responded.
Ukrainian public figure and head of the Center for Aerial Intelligence Support and the Victory Drones project, Maria Berlinska, published a table with data on Ukrainian drone manufacturers. For this, she was thanked by Russian osinters and criticized by Ukrainians. How Berlinska responded.
On May 28, Maria Berlinska forwarded a message from the Victory Drones Telegram channel to her more than 20,000 subscribers. «A spreadsheet with useful contacts from Victory Drones,» she noted. The message included a link to a Google Sheets file that contained data on more than 30 drone manufacturing workshops, including phone numbers.
Later, one of the Russian Telegram channels, which is engaged in OSINT to harm the Defense Forces, thanked the Berlin channel, noting that it was working on identifying UAV-related production facilities in Ukraine. «Here is such a gift, indicating who is responsible for what and in which cities it is located,» the Russians wrote.
Maria Berlinska was criticized on Ukrainian social media for publishing data on Ukrainian producers in the open. In particular, volunteer Igor Lachen responded to her.
«This is just a f*ck… Didn’t Chernihiv learn anything? At first I didn’t believe in such stupidity, but I went and checked and this is a real post with cities and contact numbers…», he wrote.
In 2023, Russian troops fired an Iskander-M ballistic missile at the center of Chernihiv, in particular at the drama theater on the main square of the city. At that time, the Angry Birds drone exhibition, initiated by Maria Berlinska, was taking place there. At that time, she was accused of disclosing information about the event, which the Russians took advantage of. Belinska stated that general information about the exhibition was announced in the open, but the specific location was only announced to registered and verified participants a few hours before the event.
«I see a wave of hate regarding the table with contacts of manufacturers, schools, workshops. I’ll answer everyone right away — The table with these contacts is as old as the world. And of course, Russians have known about it for a long time. The information in it is only that which manufacturers, schools, workshops themselves asked to be included in it. That is, only that information that is publicly available,» Maria Berlinska wrote first.
Later, she explained in more detail what she meant. According to her, the table was created back in 2022, when Victory Drones was receiving «thousands of requests from fighters» and there was «no infrastructure from the state.» At the same time, the Russians had «a lot of aggregated information on our manufacturers, schools, workshops» on their channels.
«A decision is made to take the data that the enemy has collected about us, add the data that the manufacturers themselves post publicly and on social networks, and create one table — where fighters, commanders, volunteers will be able to receive the necessary information. Over time, manufacturers, workshops, and other services ask to add their advertising contacts there — websites, social networks. Everyone knows that the table is public, and the enemy knows about it. Moreover, the data that the enemy had was taken as the basis,» Berlinska claims.
According to her, a little-known Russian channel has been trying to knock her and the Victory Drones volunteers out of the game for a long time. «It’s very funny and primitive — they post information dug up in open sources and everywhere attribute it to Berlinskaya who leaked it to them,» the head of Victory Drones points out.
She stated that the Russians «successfully manipulated Lachen,» who «didn’t understand and went crazy,» despite the fact that most of the data in the table was originally taken from Russian sources, or «advertising and public relations were added later.» Berlinska noted that in this way the Russians are manipulating and trying to create division in Ukrainian society.
«While the Russian people are rejoicing over a successful special operation to create yet another split in society, we should learn this lesson. Otherwise, they will continue to play with us, using our penchant for hype, hate, and emotional exhaustion,» wrote the head of Victory Drones.
Igor Lachen noted that «information that is as old as the world is not an excuse,» because «Russians do not spare Iskanders,» even for those productions that are no longer operating, and asked to show him the same information from the Russians as in the table.
«Rusnya is currently hunting down everyone associated with the production of drones, so I recommend that many people refrain from revealing any information,» the volunteer noted.
