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The
digital assault against Viasat's KA-SAT network in late February
took place just as Russian armour pushed into Ukraine and helped
facilitate President Vladimir Putin's invasion of the country,
the Council of the EU said in a statement.
"This cyberattack had a significant impact causing
indiscriminate communication outages and disruptions across
several public authorities, businesses and users in Ukraine, as
well as affecting several EU Member States," the statement said.
"This unacceptable cyberattack is yet another example of
Russia's continued pattern of irresponsible behaviour in
cyberspace, which also formed an integral part of its illegal
and unjustified invasion of Ukraine," it added.
The remote sabotage caused a "huge loss in communications in the
very beginning of war," Ukrainian cybersecurity official Victor
Zhora said in March.
Russia routinely denies it carries out offensive cyber
operations. The Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request
from Reuters for comment.
Western intelligence agencies, including the U.S. National
Security Agency, French government cybersecurity organisation
ANSSI, and Ukrainian intelligence were investigating Russia's
potential role in the attack in the days after it, Reuters
reported at the time.
"This is clear and shocking evidence of a deliberate and
malicious attack by Russia against Ukraine which had significant
consequences on ordinary people and businesses in Ukraine and
across Europe," British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a
statement.
(Reporting by James Pearson; Additional reporting by William
James in London; Editing by Jan Harvey, William Maclean and
Angus MacSwan)
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