London: A new cache of emails hacked from the office of an aide to Russian president Vladimir Putin reveals a 2015 plot to destabilise the eastern Ukraine city of Kharkiv, the hackers claim.
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They also show Russia using its influence over Ukrainian politicians to get laws introduced into parliament.
The group called the Ukrainian Cyber Alliance stole the emails from the reception office of Russian presidential aide Vladislav Surkov, an influential official dubbed Mr Putin's 'grey cardinal'.
It's the second cache of emails from the group, which last month posted 2000 emails from Mr Surkov dating from between September 2013 and November 2014.
The Russian government has denied to the BBC all the allegations related to the emails, including that they were linked to Mr Surkov, who they said did not use email.
However independent observers have assessed that at least some of the emails are genuine – and some of those whose correspondence with Mr Surkov was included in the leak have confirmed they sent the messages.
A Ukraine journalist who has met one of the hackers says they have "many terabytes" of information not yet released, and they are still working to obtain more.
This second release of emails from the group of self-described 'hacktivists' includes a report on the situation in Kharkiv.
The email sent in April 2015 to Surkov's office from a United Russia State Duma member set out a detailed plan to destabilise the city of Kharkiv.
"It goes into great detail about how they're going to utilise journalists and the media, television especially, and create these groups that give the impression that it's civil society rising up," said Radio Free Europe journalist Christopher Miller.
However the plan fizzled out within a month after Kiev reasserted its control over the city and established a groundswell of support.
Miller made contact with the hackers after their first leak last week, and interviewed one of them – who called himself 'RUH8'.
He told Fairfax that RUH8 was "doing it for patriotic purposes."
"I didn't get the impression from him it was about money or prominence or attention or anything of that sort. I really did get the sense that he enjoys doing it – very very much so," said Miller.
"For him it's personal because he's from a place in eastern Ukraine currently under the control of separatists and he's unable to go back home."
RUH8 is part of a 'hacktivist collective' who see themselves as Ukraine's answer to Fancy Bear.
Fancy Bear is suspected of having Russian state links and was allegedly behind the Democrat National Committee email hack in addition to hacks on leading sports stars.
Miller said there was some communication between the Ukraine hackers and Ukraine's intelligence service, the SBU.
"The SBU can't say publicly that they openly co-operate or coordinate or request anything from hackers because what hackers do and what these guys have done is illegal," he said.
"But (the hackers) do have communication with people in the Ukrainian intelligence services. And this hacker told me that the security services have asked before 'are you able to hack into this guy's account or get me something on this guy?'.
"He explained it's not so easy to go after a single person – it takes a lot of time and resources and this is a small hacker collective who have day jobs."
Miller said the emails also revealed a "broader network" of people involved in asserting Russia's influence in Ukraine's affairs, including a draft law that looked like it was written by Mr Surkov himself or with his help, and sent to a member of the opposition bloc in Ukraine.
"That actually made it into parliament," Miller said. "It was introduced. That shows us the level of success they've had in meddling. They don't just throw money at a bunch of crazy whackos in eastern Ukraine and have them take over buildings but they're actually able to infiltrate Ukraine's parliament.
"We're seeing the broader network that the Kremlin is employing to meddle in Ukraine's affairs."
However he said the emails contained no bombshell revelations – mostly they contained trivial information or information confirming what was already known or suspected.
Miller said the hackers have "many terabytes of information" and, based on what he had seen on his meeting with them, he said there was "a lot more still out there".
However he had not seen anything related to the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.
"I was hoping to find something but we just haven't yet," he said.
