"Ticket to Bandera": Doxing Foreign Fighters for Ukraine

Doxing, the act of revealing an individual's personal information in the online public space with the general intent of causing harm, forms an integral part of the Russian playbook against Ukraine since 2014. The practice is also utilised to target foreign fighters/volunteers who deployed to Ukraine to fight against Russia. To accomplish the task, Russia mobilises a global network which dehumanises Moscow’s foes on specially designated doxing channels on Telegram or other online platforms while wishing they acquire the so-called “ticket to Bandera”, a colloquial motif implying they will die and proverbially meet the long-deceased leader of Ukrainian nationalism, Stepan Bandera. These online spaces are then integrated into the wider war effort, especially on the information front, with the likes of the Russian government-controlled media quoting and approving the work of the doxers.  Doxing in the hands of the Russians or their volunteers is no mere tool for naming and shaming. It has real-life consequences for those who are doxed. Not only are they called names or branded as puppets of Ukraine and all of its assumed backers, but they are also threatened and blackmailed by the doxers.

This report studies the efforts of the global network of Russians and their volunteer doxers found on doxing channels between 2024 and 2025 and focuses on the European victims of this modus operandi. It is intended not only to raise awareness of the practice of doxing by malicious state or non-state actors, but also to highlight the potential for this practice to be used as blackmail or compromising material against the doxed individual. In this scenario, the victims of doxing could then be coerced into engaging in activities which benefit Russia, e.g. staging acts of political violence. Given the Russian sabotage campaign in Europe and that such incidents have subsequently led to terrorist attacks or scares by Russian “agents” in Ukraine, the EU must remain vigilant against such a threat on the territories of its Member States.

Photocredit: alexsl, Getty Images Signature/Canva