Russian-language clues found behind group claiming attempted arson at Ukrainian drone plant in Slovakia
A little-known “anti-war” group that claimed responsibility for a planned arson attack on a Ukrainian drone manufacturer's plant in Slovakia appears to have left multiple Russian-language traces on its website and social media, according to an investigation by The Insider.
Global Citizens Against War 1984 (GCAW1984) describes itself as an international anti-war movement unaffiliated with any state. In late August, the group claimed responsibility for an attempted arson attack on a plant belonging to Ukrainian drone manufacturer Skyeton in eastern Slovakia.
Slovak authorities detained two Latvian nationals and a Ukrainian national in connection with the attempted attack on August 25.
GCAW1984 has described companies producing weapons for conflict zones as “legitimate targets,” threatened further acts of sabotage and hinted at a possible future attack on a planned US-Israeli missile production facility in Germany.
The Insider found several indications that the people behind the group use Russian as a primary language.
Although GCAW1984's Instagram account is run in English, two of its saved story collections have the Russian title “Актуальное” (“Highlights”). The Insider said it checked the account with Instagram's interface set to English and found that the labels remained in Russian, indicating that they had been entered manually by the account's administrator.
The group's website also contains traces pointing to Russian-language source material.
Most of the site's text uses the Poppins typeface, but part of a quotation from George Orwell's 1984 is formatted in YS Text, a proprietary font developed by Russian technology company Yandex.
The Insider suggested the formatting may have been carried over when text was copied from another source.
The Orwell quotation itself provides another clue. Rather than using the original English wording from 1984, the website appears to use an English translation of a Russian translation of the novel.
Orwell originally wrote: “Being in a minority, even a minority of one, did not make you mad.”
The GCAW1984 website instead says: “Just because you're in the minority, or even in the singular, doesn't mean you're crazy.”
The unusual phrase “even in the singular” closely mirrors wording used in a common Russian translation of the passage, The Insider noted.
The outlet said it had previously analyzed the group's manifesto and a letter sent by a person identifying himself as Robert Lewanowski and found multiple constructions characteristic of translation from Russian.
Questions have also emerged about the identities of the group's purported members.
Its website names only two people: Polish national Robert Lewanowski and Serbian national Stefan Ilić. Slovak outlet Aktuality.sk previously identified discrepancies in their published biographies, while The Insider said it could find no independent evidence confirming many of the claims about either man.
Lewanowski's biography, for example, says he was drafted into the Polish military in 2007 and served for two years, although compulsory military service in Poland at the time lasted nine months.
The names themselves have also raised questions. Both resemble those of prominent footballers — Polish striker Robert Lewandowski and Serbian footballer Ivan Ilić — with the Polish surname altered by a single letter.
The investigation has not established who is behind GCAW1984 or demonstrated a link between the group and the Russian state.
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