An Aquatic Retailer who once appeared in an Aquarium Co-Op podcast has been found out as a well-known Pro-Russia Propagandist called Donbas Devushka. 37-year-old Sarah Bils from New Jersey ran a store named Cascade Aquatics, selling tropical fish and imported dry goods from Poland, but unbeknown to many, she also broadcast Kremlin propaganda via a number of social media channels and under several pseudonyms.
Perhaps scarier though is that Bils is also a US Navy Veteran, who served as an aviation electronics technician at Whitby Island in Washington State. Her exit from the Navy is unclear, although according to the Telegraph, she claims that she was discharged for drunk driving.
In her propaganda videos, she went by the first name Mila, spoke with a Russian accent, and said that in 2014 she had been traveling between the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and Luhansk in Ukraine, where pro-Russian Ukrainians were being killed. In reality, she was born in Voorhees, New Jersey, and was going through a divorce in Washington at that time. Other claims include being an expert on geopolitics and history and studying at the online School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University.
Aquarium Co-Op
“Donbas Girl” did appear to know a bit about tropical fish, however, with a well-informed and trustworthy reputation among the aquarium community, ultimately landing the slot on the Aquarium Co-Op podcast episode in 2020. That appearance was to be her undoing however, as investigations by the North Atlantic Fella Organisation – NAFO – which devotes itself to raising funds for Ukraine and combating disinformation, matched her voice and home decor in the podcast with that of Donbas Devushka.
When interviewed, Ms. Bils admitted she was the administrator of Donbas Devushka accounts and the host of the podcasts. She added she was one of 15 people involved in running the network and declined to name the others. Reef Builders takes none of the credit for the investigative journalism and instead gives it all to David Millward of The Telegraph. For more information, see the original story here.
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