Several Ukrainian government websites fell victim to a large-scale cyber attack on Friday. The attack has not yet been claimed but is taking place against the rising tensions between Kyiv and Moscow.
“The official website of the Ministry of Education and Science has been closed as a precaution due to the global attack that took place on the night of January 13-14,” the ministry wrote on Facebook. The French news agency AFP notes that websites of other ministries are also inaccessible.
Anyone who visits the sites of the Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, among others, will see a message in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish. It states that the personal data of all Ukrainian citizens have been erased from the computers of the authorities and will be made public.
It remains unclear who is behind the attacks. However, the message ends with the cryptic statement that it is “vengeance for Volynia, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, the Ukrainian Resistance Army, Galicia, Polesia and the historical countries”. Volynia, Galicia and Polesia are border areas between Ukraine, Poland, Belarus and Russia.
The Ukrainian Nationalists and the resulting Ukrainian Resistance Army were far-right organizations before and during World War II.
