YESTERDAY, Kyiv appeared to accuse Russia for a cyber attack, while US President Joe Biden warned that more than 150,000 Russian troops remained near Ukraine’s borders, despite Moscow’s pledge of a partial retreat being viewed with skepticism.
World powers are engaged in one of the most serious crises in East-West relations in decades, vying for post-Cold War dominance and energy supplies as Moscow seeks to prevent the former Soviet neighbor from joining NATO.
Western countries have proposed arms control and confidence-building measures to defuse the deadlock, prompting them to advise their citizens to evacuate Ukraine because an attack may occur at any time. Russia denies any intention of invading.
Yesterday, the Russian Defense Ministry released video footage demonstrating the return of some servicemen to base following drills. Biden stated that the US had not confirmed the move. “Our analysts say that they remain in a very threatening position.”
Hours after Moscow’s declaration, Ukraine reported that its defense ministry’s and two banks’ online networks had been overloaded by what is known as a distributed denial-of-service attack. This usually occurs when hackers flood a network with unusually high volumes of data traffic in order to paralyze it, the strategy works.
Although Kyiv did not specify who was responsible for the event, a statement implied that Russia was to blame.
“It is not ruled out that the aggressor used tactics of dirty little tricks because its aggressive plans are not working out on a large scale,” said the Ukrainian Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security, which is part of the culture ministry.
Users of the Ukrainian bank Privatbank reported issues with payments and a banking app, while Oshadbank stated its systems had slowed.
“If Russia attacks the United States or our allies through asymmetric means like disruptive cyber attacks against our companies or critical infrastructure, we’re prepared to respond,” Biden said in televised remarks from the White House.
According to one European ambassador, the hacking is concerning since a full military strike on Ukraine would almost certainly be preceded by a cyber attack.
“It could mean a physical attack is imminent, or it could mean Russia is continuing to mess with Ukraine,” the diplomat said, on condition of anonymity. While such attacks are difficult to attribute, the diplomat said there was no doubt that Russia was behind them.
