U.S. Blames Russia For Cyberattacks Against Ukrainian Banks

February 18, 2022, 05:44pm

The United States believes the Russian government was behind cyberattacks that knocked out the websites of Ukraine's two largest banks.

Neuberger said during a White House press briefing that the U.S. has technical information linking the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate to Tuesday's distributed denial of service attacks.

Neuberger acknowledged it is unusual for the United States to attribute an attack to Russia quickly, but the Biden Administration decided to call out the behavior quickly.

Neuberger said that Russian cyber actors targeted the Ukrainian government, including the Army and Defense Ministry, as part of an effort to conduct disruptive cyber activities.

The Ukrainian Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, blamed Russia for the cyberattacks and said that the U.S. was interested in such strikes.

Russia denied having anything to do with the cyberattacks.

U.S. officials say Russia has positioned 150,000 troops along the Russia-Ukraine border. President Joe Biden is convinced that Russian President Vladimir Putin will invade Ukraine in the next week. One day after the U.S. Secretary of State told the Security Council about the situation in eastern Ukraine, a car belonging to a police official was bombed. No one was injured in the bombing, but Russia could stage a false flag operation to justify a potential invasion. Russia's Defense Ministry said Friday it will withdraw tanks from the Ukrainian border.

Tangent

The Biden Administration will continue to seek a diplomatic solution, but will not accept Moscow's demand for the NATO alliance to promise not to admit Ukraine in the future.

There are fears of a false flag attack in Separatist East Ukraine.

Russia claims it is withdrawing more tanks from the border.

Despite claims of de-Escalation, the U.S. says Russia moved 7,000 new troops near Ukraine.

The sites of the Ukrainian army and major banks have been knocked out by cyber attacks.