Ukraine

Ukraine Hit by 'One of the Highest-Impact' Cyber Attacks of the War

DEC 16 2023·Updated DEC 17 2023

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Image credit: Global Images Ukraine/Getty Images News [via Getty Images]

The Facts

On Saturday, the UK Ministry of Defense reported that a cyber attack on Ukrainian mobile provider Kyivstart on Tuesday was "one of the highest-impact" since the start of the war. The attack, which lasted for "at least" two days, left "users without mobile signal or the ability to use the internet," though the company said "no personal data was compromised."
guardian
A hacking group known as Solntsepyok claimed responsibility for the attack on Wednesday. Though Ukraine alleges the group has ties to Russian intelligence, Moscow has previously denied that it conducts such attacks.
The Globe and Mail
Tuesday's cyberattack, which also impacted ATMs, air raid sirens, and point-of-sale terminals, was followed by Russia reportedly launching 31 Iranian Shahed drones on Saturday. Kyiv said it shot down 30 of them across the regions of Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Chernihiv, Sumy, Poltava, Cherkasy, Kherson, Zaporizhzhya, Mykolaiv, and Khmelnytsky.
Dw.Com
Russia also claims to have shot down 32 Ukrainian drones over the Crimean Peninsula, which came after it reportedly downed another six drones in the Ukrainian border region of Kursk.
The Washington Times
Last week culminated with Ukrainian Pres. Volodymyr Zelenskyy's trip to Europe to seek $50B more in funding. While Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán blocked the proposed funding until talks continue in January, the EU countries on Thursday did agree to commence accession talks for Ukraine. Orbán's agreement on accession talks was a breakthrough after weeks of resisting the proposal.
wapo
Meanwhile, Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin on Thursday told reporters that "Peace will come when we achieve our goals," also calling Western aid to Ukraine "freebies" that "can run out at some point" and may already be "starting to run out." Putin took a confident stance during the press conference, claiming there was no need for another military draft because 500K people had voluntarily signed up.
nytimes

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The Spin

Pro-Russia narrative

As this stalemate continues to drag on, with Ukraine nowhere close to achieving the goals the West claimed were plausible, it would be wrong not to mention the attempted peace negotiations of March 2022. Almost two years ago, Russia was prepared to end this conflict so long as Kyiv agreed not to join NATO; unfortunately, Western countries like Britain blocked those talks. Moscow is still prepared to go to the table with Kyiv, but for that to happen, Western leaders who know the behind-the-scenes truth must bring it to light and stop throwing a wrench in the potential progress.

RT International

Anti-Russia narrative

While Russia pretends to be the honest, anti-war party whose peace-seeking endeavors are being quashed by the evil West, the truth is that there is no historical precedent to back up its claims. Russia promised in the 90s not to invade Ukraine, and then did so by invading Crimea 17 years later. It also promised to stay out of other Eastern European regions before sending troops to Moldova and Georgia. More recently, Russia has meddled in Western politics and elections — how, after all that, could Kyiv and its allies trust Moscow to stand by its latest "promise?"

Los Angeles Times