Special Report: Join The Ukrainian Resistance

Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, founded during the Cold War, still broadcast official US views to Russia and other nations of the former Soviet Bloc, but it's unclear how much information penetrates the new Iron Curtain.

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Russians cannot easily view any media from outside the country, but an international group of of software developers coordinated from Poland have established a system that makes it possible for individuals to send text messages and emails to randomly selected phones and email accounts in Russia.

The group's name, Squad 303, recalls the World War II British Royal Air Force unit made up of pilots from Poland. They operate a website, 1920.in — the name refers to the Polish-Soviet War of 1920. The Soviet army withdrew from Poland and clearly the group wants to see that repeated today in Ukraine.

The process is relatively easy with a mobile phone, but even easier if you can connect the phone to your computer.

Here's how:

• Direct a browser to https://www.1920.in. There will be a slight delay as CloudFlare examines your browser. This is how Squad 303 keeps Russia from launching a distributed denial-of-service attack against the site.
• You'll be offered options to send SMS messages, WhatsApp messages, or email. The email option was unresponsive when I, but was working later. the other two services work. There is also an option that provides a phone number that can be used for voice calls.
• The SMS option will display a phone number in Russia at the top of the screen and some proposed text in Russian below. If you want to see what the message says, copy the Russian and use Google Translate to see the text in English.
  • Здравствуй, мой русский друг, Мы не знакомы, но я решил написать тебе. Я слышал, что ситуация в России начала осложняться из-за реакции на жестокое российское вторжение в Украину. Как ты? translates to Hello, my Russian friend, We are not familiar, but I decided to write to you. I have heard that the situation in Russia has begun to deteriorate due to the reaction to the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine. How do you?
  • I decided to compose my own message: Your government is lying to you about the cruel invasion of Ukraine. Russian soldiers are killing women and children. Tell Putin to stop the war. Google Translate converted my message to Russian. Ваше правительство лжет вам о жестоком вторжении в Украину. Русские солдаты убивают женщин и детей. Скажи Путину, чтобы прекратил войну.
• This is where the process becomes a bit more cumbersome on a phone. Copying and pasting the the phone number and the text into the SMS message application is much easier on a computer that's linked to your phone. There are ways to link both Android and IOS phones to computers. In either case, omit the + that's provided with the phone number. +7 indicates the number is in Russia, but the plus sign isn't needed by the SMS app.

Messages may be sent to one or more numbers, but be cautious about sending more a message simultaneously to more than two or three numbers. My test with 10 numbers failed. If you're able to do this on a computer instead of on your phone, the copy and paste operation will be faster and easier than it would be on your phone.

Squad303 says that they have obtained 20 million mobile phone numbers and nearly 140 million email addresses used by Russian individuals and companies.

And yes, you may receive some replies. Some will be friendly and express appreciation for the information. Responses from those who believe the false reports they receive from Russian state media will be less polite.