Askold Lozynskyj
Nov 8, 2025
This threat is as prevalent as feared. Anyone involved in any activity considered by the Russians to be inimical to their interests is potentially a target. My own experience with Russia is longstanding and very hostile, but, surprisingly enough, where I least expected Russian intrusion, it happened.
I am involved with a private Foundation which bears my family name. It was established upon the death of my uncle on my father’s side who passed away unmarried and childless with only a sister, two nephews and one niece as heirs at law. His orally expressed will was to use the proceeds of his largesse to provide scholarships to needy students in Ukraine for study in universities there. Throughout his life his focus had been on education. He had a PhD in jurisprudence. The Foundation was established almost immediately upon his death and more than a quarter century ago.
Since its inception the Foundation has been giving out scholarships on a semi annual basis that is per semester to students of now twelve universities in Ukraine stretching from Lviv to Kharkiv. This year alone 113 scholarships have been awarded. Due to the war the criteria for scholarship winners have changed somewhat. Need has been predicated on relocation due to the war, death of either parent or a parent’s military service. Today the recipients come from the Donbas area, Crimea, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia as well as locals from the twelve universities. The assets of the Foundation are invested primarily in blue chip stock at a well known brokerage house and self-managed.
Recently, the brokerage house alerted me to the fact that it had stopped activity including trading and transferring due to one very questionable transaction. The red flag was raised as a result of the anticipated size of the transfer (two hundred thousand dollars) and the name of the purported transferee (Moscow Arsenal). Naturally there was no history of such a large one-time transfer or a beneficiary in Russia. In fact, all transfers are usually less than ten thousand dollars and beneficiaries are located invariably in Ukraine.
Since then the brokerage house carefully monitors this account to the point where no transactions can be simply made online. Various methods of verification are now used. This has proven to be effective, without a similar hacking incident, but nevertheless burdensome for the brokerage house, the account managers and the directors of the Foundation.
The point here is not only that Russia is very active, but very often and increasingly brazen and arrogant. I can only assume that if a lesser amount and a far less glaring beneficiary had been involved the transaction may have gone through. In any event, I suppose that Russia received some satisfaction because the additional verification process slowed down the Foundation’s usual routine activity.
Russian intrusion is myriad and potentially dangerous even if not always effective. In my case while the net result cannot be measured in tangible financial loss, it certainly has involved costs and continues to require a significant amount of time, to say nothing of inconvenience. My financial transactions have been much more time consuming. This relates very much to financial transactions involving Ukraine whether it be providing vehicles, drones, interceptors and the like to the Ukrainian military or such benign matters as scholarships to Ukrainian students. As it is, the military and these students function under tremendous pressure and stress aside from the war and the educational process itself. The military aside, untimely payment for tuition aggravates people’s lives.
This singular and ultimately relatively benign example is being offered to suggest that Russian aggression is everywhere and can affect anyone who is remotely doing anything to help Ukraine. Russia is not only a killing machine. It and the Russian people are evil incarnate and, unfortunately, fastidious in their evil doing. Cyber hacking is a function of many elements of Russian society and not just government or special services. Ordinary geeks are urged to support the Fatherland aimed at eliminating Ukrainians and so they do their part. Russian culture has produced a society where issues such as right and wrong are irrelevant.
My message and not only for Ukrainians is to be vigilant and beware of Russians even in your seemingly mundane lives.
Askold Lozynskyj is an American author and attorney of Ukrainian descent who was the elected president of the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) from 1998 to 2008, the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) from 1992 to 2000, and the Ukrainian Student Organization from 1973 to 1975.
