Ukraine charges Russia with being behind massive cyberattack

According to "initial data," the massive overnight cyberattack on Ukrainian government websites originated in Russia, according to Ukraine's Culture and Information Policy Ministry.

There had already been indications that the attacks were going to take place in the Russian media, the ministry said, saying that its experts had speculated that the attacks came in the wake of "Russia's recent defeat in the talks over Ukraine's future cooperation with NATO."

CYBERATTACK IN UKRAINE TARGETS GOVERNMENT WEBSITES

A cyberattack left a number of Ukrainian government websites temporarily unavailable on Friday, officials said.

While it wasn't immediately clear who was behind the cyberattack, the disruption came amid heightened tensions with Russia and after talks between Moscow and the West failed to yield any significant progress this week.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko told The Associated Press it was too soon to tell who could have been behind the attack, "but there is a long record of Russian cyber assaults against Ukraine in the past."

Moscow had previously denied involvement in cyberattacks against Ukraine.

The websites of the country's Cabinet, seven ministries, the Treasury, the National Emergency Service and the state services website, where Ukrainians' electronic passports and vaccination certificates are stored, were temporarily unavailable Friday as a result of the hack.

The websites contained a message in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish, saying that Ukrainians' personal data has been leaked into the public domain. "Be afraid and expect the worst. This is for your past, present and future," the message read, in part.

Ukraine's State Service of Special Communication and Information Protection said that no personal data has been leaked. The country's minister for digital transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, said later on Friday that "a large part" of the affected websites have been restored.

UKRAINE SLAMS RUSSIA FOR PREPARING 'PROVOCATIONS'

Ukrainian military intelligence said on Friday that Russian special services were preparing what it called "provocations" against Russian servicemen located in Moldova's breakaway region of Transdniestria in order to accuse Ukraine.

It said in a statement that the provocations may be against Russian armed forces' artillery depots.