<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Ukraine cyber-operators are being deployed on the front lines of the war, duelling close-up with their Russian counterparts in a new kind of high-tech battle.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We have people who are directly involved in combat," says Illia Vitiuk, the head of the Ukrainian Security Service's (SBU) cyber department.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Speaking inside the heavily protected SBU headquarters, he explains how his teams mix the skills of hackers and special forces - getting inside Russian systems, working alongside snipers and deploying the latest technologies.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The department uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) visual recognition systems to analyse information gathered from aerial drones (alongside intelligence from human sources, satellites and other technical sources) to provide targets for the military.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We understand which type of military weapons they are about to use and on what direction," Mr Vitiuk says.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His teams will also hack into surveillance cameras on occupied territory to watch Russian troop movements. And they direct kamikaze drones to take out Russian cameras spying on Ukrainian movements. Doing this often requires teams working undercover, close to the target.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Drones - sometimes used for surveillance and sometimes to act as weapons - have been at the leading edge of innovation in this conflict.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The SBU cyber-team flies its own drones and plays a cat and mouse game to disrupt those belonging to Russia. It deploys sensors to detect drones so operators cannot just jam them but try to take control, sending commands to make them land.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All of this frequently needs to be done at close quarters. This, in turn, carries risk to the team members. "You need to protect them there. So you also need to have security around them," explains Mr Vitiuk.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Just outside the capital, military operators are being trained on drones.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Anton, who learnt to fly them in a previous life as a high-end travel guide, says the most important lesson is not teaching operators how to fly drones but how to stay alive themselves by avoiding being detected.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the early stages of the war, small drones were flown up to 10km (six miles) from the front. But now Ukrainian operators need to be much closer, to overcome Russian jamming signals.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The distance to the front line is getting shorter right now," Anton explains, while watching a drone flying overhead. "Our connection has to be stronger than the jamming."</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russian intelligence services have also moved some of their cyber-teams close to the front lines, according to Mr Vitiuk.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is to communicate faster with the military and to quickly provide direct access to captured Ukrainian devices or nearby communications. A captured device can then be used to gather more tactical intelligence before people realise it is in Russian hands.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The cyber-conflict was tightly bound with military operations even before the full-scale invasion of February 2022. A month earlier Russia tried to cause public panic by taking public websites offline.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It was definitely a psychological operation," says Mr Vitiuk. Ukraine was able to recover most of the systems but hours before the invasion a new wave of cyber-attacks began. The most effective took down a US satellite provider used by Ukraine's military for communications for a few hours.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As Russia's plans for a quick victory were dashed and reports of atrocities emerged, the importance of controlling the information flow increased. That was highlighted on 1 March 2022 when a combined cyber and missile strike targeted a TV tower in Kyiv.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"They were trying to deprive Ukrainians of access to truthful information," Yurii Shchyhol, head of the state service that protects communications, explains, standing in front of the tower where black scars from the missile strike are still evident. Engineers scoured the city for replacement equipment and within hours, TV broadcasting was restored. BBC</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>