At least seven critics of the Kremlin including journalists were targeted inside the European Union (EU) by a state using Pegasus, a report by digital civil rights NGO Access Now said on Thursday (May 30). Those targeted include Russian, Belarusian, Latvian and Israeli journalists and activists inside the EU.

In its report, Access Now said on Thursday an investigation by the NGO revealed that the use of Pegasus (a hacking spyware made by Israel’s NSO Group) to target Russian and Belarusian-speaking journalists dated back until at least 2020, with more attacks following the Ukraine war in 2022. 

“Access Now and the Citizen Lab also confirmed that five of the victims’ phones contained Apple IDs used by Pegasus operators in their attempts to hack the devices,” the report added. 

One of the victims is a member of the Belarusian civil society currently based in Vilnius, Lithuania, the report said. This victim chose to remain anonymous. The report added that after receiving an Apple threat notification on June 22, 2023, that their device had been targeted with a state-sponsored attack. 

“They reached out to the Citizen Lab for digital security support, who analyzed the device and confirmed that it was infected with Pegasus spyware on or around March 25, 2021,” the report said.

Another victim of the attack- a Russian journalist living in exile in Vilnius since the Ukraine war began- received two Apple threat notifications on October 31, 2023, and on April 10, 2024. 

Access Now and Citizen Lab identified an attempt to infect the journalist’s device on or around June 15, 2023. 

Other victims also received similar Apple threat notifications.

A report by The Guardian on Thursday said that Russia seemed to be the most logical possible state behind the spyware attack, but the Access Now report did not explicitly name the accused. 

“The Citizen Lab tells us that there is also no evidence suggesting that Russia, Belarus, or Lithuania are Pegasus customers,” the report said, adding, that Poland and Latvia were not responsible.

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“Estonia is another Baltic state that cooperates closely with Latvia and Lithuania on security matters, including regarding Russia and Belarus. According to the Citizen Lab, Estonia does appear to use Pegasus extensively outside their borders, including within multiple European countries,” it said.  

(With inputs from agencies)