Ukraine said on Tuesday that the sites of the country's defence ministry and armed forces as well as two state banks were hit by a cyberattack that could have Russian origins.
The announcement from Ukraine's communications watchdog comes with the former Soviet republic fearing a possible attack from Russian forces conducting massive military drills at its frontiers.
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The affected sites include the Oschadbank state savings bank and Privat24 -- two of the country's largest financial institutions.
The defence ministry site showed an error message saying the site was "undergoing technical maintenance".
President Joe Biden said there was still "plenty of room for diplomacy" with Russia to avoid a conflict in Europe.
An apparent cyberattack hit Ukraine's defence ministry and armed forces, and two Ukrainian banks on Tuesday. It was not immediately clear who was responsible.
European leaders will convene tomorrow for a newly arranged face-to-face meeting in Brussels to discuss the latest Russia-Ukraine developments.
“Ahead of tomorrow’s European Union – African Union Summit, there will be a one hour informal meeting of the members of the European Council at 12:30 pm (local) on a state of play of latest developments related to Russia/Ukraine,” European Council spokesperson Barend Leyts said in a statement.
The CIA station in Kyiv has temporarily left along with the embassy, and relocated in Lviv, according to sources familiar with the matter — as would be expected, since the agency relies on the embassy backbone to operate out of in Kyiv as it does in other cities around the world.
According to two other sources familiar with the matter, the kind of work agency officers were doing in Ukraine is standard liaison partner work that has been ongoing there since at least the Obama administration.
As Russia is withdrawing it forces surrounding Ukraine, the Indian Embassy in Kyiv said that it was monitoring the situation and issued some FAQs for Indian citizens. Reports suggest that the Indian government was planning to increase the number of flights from the country to ensure that safety of its citizens. Meanwhile, NATO has urged Moscow to prove it was pulling back its forces and claimed that there were signs of more troops being on their way to the Ukrainian border. Britain joined the United States in saying it had yet to be convinced the pullout was real, while in Ukraine, the defence ministry said an unprecedented cyberattack was into its second day. Russia said it had nothing to do with any attack.
But the move could still make it more difficult for the CIA to collect intelligence on Russian activities inside Ukraine, at a time when the US is warily watching for signs of Russian conventional or “grayzone” warfare.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that “Russia has amassed an invasion force on the borders of Ukraine" in opening remarks of the Meetings of NATO Ministers of Defence in Brussels Wednesday. But, he said, there are signals from the Kremlin that diplomacy should continue.
“This gives grounds for cautious optimism, however, we have not so far seen any sign of de-escalation on the ground,” Stoltenberg said.
“NATO is not a threat to Russia, and we remain ready to engage in dialogue and find a diplomatic way forward,” he said.
Stoltenberg said while the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would “continue to work for the best, we must also be prepared for the worst.”
“We will do what is necessary to protect and defend all allies. We have already raised the readiness of the NATO Response Force, and allies are putting forces on standby and deploy more troops, planes and ships.”
“Today, we will consider how we should enhance our deterrence and defense posture and pursue our diplomatic efforts,” Stoltenberg said.
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