Ukraine says it foiled Russian cyberattack on electricity grid

Ukraine says it foiled a cyberattack by Russian military hackers against its electricity grid, as officials urged residents of the eastern Donbas region to evacuate to safer parts of the country to escape an expected all-out attack on the area by Moscow's forces.

Officials say Ukraine's energy sector has experienced a surge in cyberattacks since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour on February 24th, and more are expected as Moscow's military shifts its focus to Donbas after being beaten back from the outskirts of the capital.

Victor Zhora, a senior Ukrainian communications and digital development official, said computer systems at an unnamed energy operator were infected with malware that hackers planned to use to disrupt electricity supply last Friday.

"These are military hackers of the Russian Federation, whose goal was to disable several infrastructure elements of the target of the attack, including electrical substations," he said on Tuesday.

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“The threat was serious, but it was prevented in a timely manner… It looks like we were very lucky,” he added.

Deputy energy minister Farid Safarov did not disclose the name or location of the targeted firm, but said "1.5 to 2 million private consumers would have been without electricity supply if [the attack] was successful, not to mention industry".

The malware deployed in the attack is believed to be a new variant of a programme that caused a 2016 power cut in Ukraine that was also blamed on a hacking group called Sandworm, which experts say is linked to the GRU Russian military intelligence agency.

Reposition

The reminder of the cyberthreat posed by Russia comes as its ground forces reposition for an expected onslaught against government-controlled areas of Donbas, where residents are being urged to move to safer parts of Ukraine.

"Evacuate – the situation is getting worse every day," Serhiy Haidai, the governor the Luhansk region that is part of Donbas, wrote on social media on Tuesday. "Take care of your own safety! If we lose you then what are we fighting for?"

Mr Haidai also described a desperate situation in several towns and cities of the region where morgues were full of victims of the war, power was off or intermittent, and people were being buried in makeshift graves because cemeteries were inaccessible.

“Due to the partial occupation of cities by the Russians the removal of bodies is impossible, and burials are carried out by residents in the yards of residential areas. Because of shelling in certain areas bodies remain lying on the streets,” he said.

Ukrainian officials accuse Russia of committing grave atrocities in areas near Kyiv that they occupied for several weeks, and by bombing hospitals, schools and apartment blocks in several towns and cities. They also say Moscow’s troops have forcibly transferred thousands of Ukrainians from Donbas to Russia.

"In the liberated areas of Ukraine, work continues to record and investigate war crimes committed by the Russian Federation," Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday.

“Almost every day new mass graves are found. Evidence is being gathered. Thousands and thousands of victims. Hundreds of cases of brutal torture. Human corpses are still found in manholes and basements. Tied up, mutilated bodies…Hundreds of cases of rape have been recorded”.

Allegations

Russia rejects such allegations, and dismisses claims from some Ukrainian soldiers that Moscow’s forces dropped some form of chemical weapon on their positions in the besieged city of Mariupol on Monday night.

"We're not in a position to confirm anything, I don't think Ukrainians are either," said US secretary of state Antony Blinken.

“But let me say that we had credible information that Russian forces may use a variety of riot control agents, including tear gas mixed with chemical agents…as part of the aggressive campaign” in Mariupol.