Cyber Attacks Commence as Ukraine and Russia Tensions Escalate Amid Military Action

The turbulent situation in Ukraine has developed rapidly over the past 24 hours and a lot has happened in a short span of time. Despite the casualties on both sides and the swift advance of Russian forces to the very suburbs of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, there is now hope for a gradual de-escalation of the conflict.

Russian forces launched an attack on a number of locations across Ukraine yesterday, in the early morning hours just before sunrise. The move was approved by Russian president Vladimir Putin who made an official statement on national television, explaining his reasons for carrying out what he called a "special military operation" in Ukraine. Just a couple of days earlier, Putin also formally recognized the existence of a Luhansk and a Donetsk republic existing within the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine.

Cyberattacks preceding military action

Just a day before the invasion took place, Ukrainian government and financial websites were hit with a wave of distributed denial of service attacks. The cyberattacks started on Wednesday and have caused IT infrastructure disruption in the country. While there is no hard evidence that the attacks were launched by Russian actors, it is not too difficult to put two and two together, given how they almost perfectly coincided with the air and land invasion that took place yesterday.

In addition to the DDoS attacks, security experts also found a piece of destructive, data-wiping malware on a great number of computers in Ukraine. The malware has been named HermeticWiper by researchers. This unusual name comes from the name of the company used to sign the software's digital certificate.

A certain Hermetica Digital Ltd - an obscure business entity registered in Cyprus - was the party that signed the malware's digital certificate. The timestamp on the file is set to late December 2021. Assuming the wiper tool is also part of a larger cyberattack coordinated along with the military invasion, that would mean things were set in motion months ago.

Yesterday Ukraine announced martial law on its territory. During the late afternoon hours, Russian troops shelled and later seized the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Today there have been conflicting reports coming from sources both Ukrainian and Russian about an increased radiation level in the area of the plant, with Russian sources denying it.

In the early afternoon hours of Friday, reports came in about Russian tanks reaching the suburbs of Kiyv, following up on the early-morning rocket attacks that shook the Ukrainian capital city.

International reactions and backlash

The international backlash against the invasion has intensified as well. Today the UK announced that in addition to previously imposed sanctions the country will block all Russian Aeroflot flights over UK airspace. In retaliation, the Russian government announced it will reciprocate by banning UK flights over its own airspace.

On Friday, in the afternoon hours local European time, Ukrainian president Zelenskyy pleaded for peace talks and negotiations so that the bloodshed in the country can come to an end. Russian minister of foreign affairs, Sergey Lavrov responded that peace talks cannot start before Ukraine stops fighting back and once again levied the usual Russian rhetoric that Ukraine was steered by "neo-Nazi" influences and the West at large.

 Putin encourages military coup in Ukraine

Just minutes ago, Russian president Putin made a direct statement in a video call concerning the situation in Ukraine, addressing the Ukrainian military and essentially encouraging them to perform a military coup, seizing power in the country. Putin called the current elected government of Ukraine a "gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis" and directly urged the Ukrainian military to seize power because he believes they will be much easier to negotiate with. In the same statement, Putin accused the current government of Ukraine of "holding the country’s entire population hostage".