Kiev: State-sponsored hackers hit Ukraine with a “massive cyberattack, shutting down multiple government websites amid heightened tension with Russia.”

Sky News reported on Friday that the disruption came at a time of extreme tension with Russia, which is believed to have gathered around 100,000 troops on the Ukrainian border.

“Following a massive cyberattack, the websites of the Foreign Ministry and a number of other government agencies are temporarily unavailable,” the Foreign Ministry in Kyiv said.

“It is too early to draw conclusions, but there is a long history of Russian aggression against Ukraine,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

The websites of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Security and Defense Council and the Cabinet of Government Ministers were among those affected.

On some websites, a text in three languages ​​– Ukrainian, Polish and Russian – indicates that all data of Ukrainians uploaded to the network has become public.

Russia has been repeatedly accused of cyberattacks against Ukraine.

The targeting of Ukrainian government websites came as talks between representatives of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Russia concluded without a clear outcome, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, describing the differences between the two sides as “significant” and “will not be easily bridged”.

Alexander Lukashevich, Russia’s permanent representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said after the talks that Moscow was disappointed with the West’s response to its proposals on Ukraine and European security.

Stoltenberg also warned Russia that further military aggression against Ukraine would have a “high political and economic price”.

(IANS)