Ukraine calls on citizens to report Russian troop movements on Telegram

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate on Wednesday urged citizens to report Russian troop positions via an internet chatbot.

The URL provided by the ministry (t.me/stop_russian_war_bot) is a link to an invitation to add the dedicated bot on the Telegram messenger app.

The ministry said it vets each message and then passes it to the military for further testing.

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The ministry added that the messages should be in a specific format, listing the city, event area, time of detection and, if possible, the geolocation where Russian troops were spotted.

Additionally, the message must provide the number of enemy soldiers observed and the type of unit, which direction the troops are heading and their intentions and any signs of suspicious persons.

"We publish the results of the chatbot every day. And our military is grateful for the exact coordinates!" the Ministry said. "Let's win together!"

This is not the first time the Ukrainian government called on civilians to report Russian military activities on Telegram.

Ukrayinska Pravda reported on March 1 that the government had created the chatbot Tribunal.ua to allow people to document war crimes committed by Russian forces.