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Ukraine said it had evidence that Friday’s attack on government websites was probably carried out by Russia, while fearing that Moscow was preparing to launch a counter-insurgency operation after failing to secure security talks with the US and Nato.
“At this point we can say that all the evidence points to Russia as the instigator of the plot,” Ukraine’s digital transformation ministry said on Sunday. “Moscow continues to fight a mixed war and is rapidly developing its knowledge and skills of the cyber space.”
But Kyiv said the investigation was ongoing and did not say what happened in Russia.
Individually, the National Security Council in Ukraine said over the weekend that it was suspicious of Belarus’ intellectual militant group that carried out the attack – claiming that Russia could have used its counterpart to justify its refusal to take action.
The Belarusian government, which has led to cooperation with Moscow after the protests in the summer of 2020, has not responded to the allegations.
Western allies in Ukraine have warned that cyber attacks could be the beginning of an escalating war as Moscow mobilized 100,000 troops near the border in recent months.
The cyber-attack, which removed about 70 government documents on Friday, came as the White House warned Russia to appoint workers in eastern Ukraine as part of a “fake operation” to create a “cause for insurgency”.
The US and the EU have vowed to provide “crippling” sanctions against Russia to a greater extent than after the annexation of Crimea if it resumes its violence in Ukraine. Russia annexed the Ukrainian island of Crimea in 2014.
Russia has denied plans to invade Ukraine, but has warned of “unspecified military and technical” responses if the US does not agree with what President Vladimir Putin wanted to restore Nato growth in the east and promised not to accept former Soviet states, including Ukraine.
Western officials have refused to respond to their demands, while trying to reach an agreement on such issues as the disarmament and deployment of troops.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, told CNN that the failure of negotiations in Geneva, Brussels and Vienna “was” disruptive “while Moscow and Nato remained” different ways “.
Peskov also declined to say that Moscow “will not send weapons to Ukraine”.
Although cyber attacks could lead to sanctions, Western officials have so far stopped direct contact with Russia in the attack as they point to Moscow’s history of nuclear war.
Victoria Nuland, US Secretary of State, told the Financial Times that the cyber attack was “a tried and true part of Russia’s game book” and that the West was looking “extremely hurtful if Russia made this move.”
The attack, which tarnished websites such as the Ukrainian prime minister and several services, was designed to look like ransomware, as well as to leave malicious “malicious” programs designed to degrade the intended weapons, “Microsoft said in a blog post on Saturday.
Microsoft did not identify the perpetrators or their motives, but said that the incident affected more people than is known here and warned that it represented “a serious threat to any government, nonprofit organization or business venture in Ukraine.”
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