• Russian cyberattacks on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure could equate to war crimes, Ukraine said.
• Ukraine is gathering evidence of Russian cyberattacks linked to military strikes, per Politico.
• The coordinated efforts directly impact Ukrainian civilians, said Ukraine’s top cyber official.

A senior Ukrainian cybersecurity official said Russian cyberattacks on critical and civilian infrastructure could equate to war crimes.

Victor Zhora, the chief digital transformation officer at the State Service of Special Communication and Information Protection of Ukraine (SSSCIP), told Politico that Ukrainian officials are gathering evidence of Russian cyberattacks to share with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

The cyberattacks in focus are those linked to more traditional military attacks, said Zhora, who leads cybersecurity operations for SSSCIP, per Politico.

“When we observe the situation in cyberspace we notice some coordination between kinetic strikes and cyberattacks, and since the majority of kinetic attacks are organized against civilians — being a direct act of war crime — supportive actions in cyber can be considered as war crimes,” Zhora told Politico.

In the interview, the cybersecurity official cited several examples of Russian cyber warfare linked to military strikes, including an attack on DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private investor in the energy industry, last July.

That month, DTEK said in a press release that Russia carried out a cyberattack on its infrastructure at the same time as a missile attack on the Kryvorizka power station.

“Their thermal power plant was shelled, and simultaneously, their corporate network was attacked,” Zhora told Politico of the incident. “It’s directed and planned activity from Russians, which they did both in conventional domain and in cyber domain.”

Zhora noted other examples of coordinated attacks in Odesa, Lviv, and Mykolaiv, Politico reported.

The cybersecurity official said that shelling was supported by cyberattacks on “local authorities, websites, or on local internet service providers,” per the media outlet.

A June 2022 Microsoft intelligence report highlighted numerous examples of coordinated kinetic and cyberattacks on Ukraine by Russia-backed groups.

These types of coordinated efforts directly impact Ukrainian civilians by disrupting the IT infrastructure, power grids, telecommunications, and critical infrastructure they depend on, Zhora told Politico.

Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, including energy facilities, were last month described by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights as possible war crimes.

Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed last month that Russia is targeting energy infrastructure but accused Ukrainian forces of doing it first. “Yes, we are doing it, but who started it?” Putin said in a video reported on by Politico.

Russia has been accused of multiple war crimes since it launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Andriy Kostin, said in September that his office had documented some 34,000 potential war crimes committed by Russian forces.

Investigators are looking into events in Bucha, Mariupol, and the rape and torture of children, with the idea that these could be brought before judges in The Hague.

BY David Brennan Newsweek

Which Countries Are Helping Russia In The War Against Ukraine?

senior Russian diplomat has lauded North Korea for “firmly” supporting Moscow’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, which has found few fully committed supporters in the international community.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko told the state-run Tass news agency that Pyongyang’s support for Kremlin’s attack on its neighbor will help further cooperation between the two nations.

“North Korea was among the countries that firmly supported, including on the [United Nations] platform, the decision by the Russian Federation to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine,” Rudenko said.

He added that North Korea was one of few nations to back Moscow’s claimed annexation of four partially occupied Ukrainian territories—in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk—in September.

“We appreciate this support and, undoubtedly, take it into account in promoting the course towards comprehensively developing traditional relations of friendship and cooperation that was laid down at a meeting of the Russian and North Korean leaders in Vladivostok in April 2019,” Rudenko said, referring to the first face-to-face meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the Pacific port city.

Moscow-Pyongyang alignment on a range of issues and growing diplomatic ties, Rudenko added, “create good pre-requisites for that.”

North Korea is offering diplomatic, and reportedly military, support for Russia’s invasion, while nations including China and India have tried to straddle the growing divide between Moscow and its Western rivals.

The invasion is now in its eleventh month with no sign that Russia plans to backtrack despite successive battlefield defeats and increasingly grim economic conditions.

In March, North Korea was one of only five nations—alongside Belarus, Eritrea, Syria, and Russia—to vote against a UN General Assembly resolution condemning Moscow’s invasion, which then looked poised to seize Kyiv.

In April, North Korea was one of 24 nations voting against a proposal for Russia to be suspended from the UN Human Rights Council.

And in October, North Korea stood with Russia against a UN General Assembly resolution—passed with an overwhelming 143-nation majority—calling on member-states not to recognize Moscow’s claimed annexations. Belarus, Nicaragua, Syria, and Russia also voted against the motion.

North Korea had already officially recognized the independence of Moscow’s puppet republics—Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics—in eastern Ukraine, the supposed protection of which was among Putin’s justifications for his invasion. Following this recognition, Ukraine severed diplomatic ties with Pyongyang.

Russian diplomats, meanwhile, have been backing their North Korean counterparts at the UN as Pyongyang adopts an unprecedented rate of ballistic missile tests that have irked the U.S. and its regional allies South Korea and Japan.

A passer-by takes a photograph of a decoration stylized as the “Kremlin Star”, bearing a Z letter, a tactical insignia of Russian troops in Ukraine, in Moscow, Russia on January 2, 2023. North Korea had already officially recognized the independence of Moscow’s puppet republics in Donetsk and Luhansk.NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said in November that Moscow is offering “blanket protection” for North Korea from UN Security Council action over the launches.

“You don’t get to abandon Security Council responsibilities because the [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] might sell you weapons to fuel your war of aggression in Ukraine, or because you think they make a good regional buffer to the United States,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

U.S. officials have accused North Korea of sending weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine as Moscow looks abroad for suppliers to restock its depleted arsenal. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby last month accused Pyongyang of sending weapons to Wagner Group mercenaries.

North Korea’s foreign ministry dismissed the allegations of sending military supplies to Russia as “the most absurd red herring.”

Newsweek has contacted the North Korean foreign ministry to request comment.