Ukraine uses facial recognition technology to find and contact mothers of dead Russian soldiers

Ukraine has devised a macabre scheme to use facial recognition software to identify the bodies of dead Russian soldiers and contact their mothers.

Ukraine’s IT Army, a volunteer force of hackers and activists, used the body IDs to tell the families of 582 Russians that their son was killed in Putin’s war.

Even sending families photos of the abandoned and bloody corpses of their sons.

The strategy is a ruthless effort to convey the reality of Moscow’s “special operation” to ordinary Russians who may not be getting an accurate picture of the war.

But military and technology analysts fear the dark strategy could backfire, antagonizing and inflaming the emotions of the very people whose hearts and minds they are meant to influence.

Ukraine’s IT Army, a volunteer force of hackers and activists, used the body IDs to tell the families of 582 Russians their son was killed in Putin’s war

Ukrainians use facial recognition software from US tech firm Clearview AI, performing more than 8,600 facial recognition searches on dead or captured Russians since the war began.

Stephanie Hare, a surveillance researcher in London, warned of the dangers of Western governments backing the tactic.

“Contacting soldiers’ parents is ‘classic psychological warfare’ but could set a dangerous new norm for future conflicts,” she said.

“If it were Russian soldiers doing this with Ukrainian mothers, we could say, ‘Oh my God, that’s barbaric,'” she said.

“And does it really work? Or does it make them say, “Look what these cruel, lawless Ukrainians are doing to our boys?”

Clearview AI Managing Director Hoan Ton-That said The Washington Post that more than 340 officials from five Ukrainian government agencies can now use its tool to perform facial recognition searches whenever they want, free of charge.

The company, Ton-That said, first offered its services last month to Ukraine’s Defense Ministry after seeing Russian propaganda claiming soldiers captured there were actors or fraudsters.

Clearview AI chief executive Hoan Ton-That (above) said more than 340 officials from five Ukrainian government agencies can now use its tool to perform facial recognition searches whenever they want, free of charge.

Hoan Ton-That demonstrated facial recognition software using his own face to identify himself

National security expert says Ukraine’s treatment of captured Russian soldiers, such as holding press conferences with them and posting photos and videos of their faces, has been viewed in Russia as humiliation by the enemy .

The IT army posted videos on Telegram with excerpts of conversations with relatives of deceased Russian soldiers whom they contacted.

In a chat, someone who received photos of a Russian soldier’s bloodied face replied, “It’s Photoshop!!! IT CAN’T BE.

The sender replied, according to the footage: “That’s what happens when you send people to war.”

In a second conversation, a Russian mother received a message telling her that her son was dead, along with a photo of a man’s body in the dirt, his face grimacing and his mouth wide open.

To prove their claim, the sender sent another photo showing a gloved hand holding the man’s military documents.

‘Why do you do that?’ the recipient has replied. “Do you want me to die? I don’t live anymore. You must appreciate that.

The stranger replied that young men were already dying, by the thousands. It’s “the only way to stop all this madness,” the sender wrote. “How many people still have to die? »

Beyond scanning dead bodies, Ukraine is also using facial recognition to identify Russian soldiers caught on camera looting Ukrainian homes and storefronts, an official with Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation said.