68 Will Englund &
Kathy Lally, Ukraine, Under Pressure from Russia, Puts Brakes on EU. Deal
The Washington Post, Nov. 21, 2013; James Marson, et al. Ukraine President Viktor
Yanukovych Driven From Power
The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 23, 2014.
Andy Greenberg, How an Entire Nation Became Russia’s Test Lab for Cyberwar,’’
Wired, June 20, 2017.
397
Ibid. 398
Ibid. 399
Ibid. 400
Ibid. Kim Zetter, Inside the Cunning Unprecedented Hack of Ukraine’s Power Grid
Wired, Mar. 3, 2016. Andy Greenberg, How an Entire Nation Became Russia’s Test Lab for Cyberwar,’’
Wired, June 20, 2017.
Yanukovych backtracked on the deal in response to pressure from
Moscow.
395
The Ukrainian people rose up in a Revolution of Dignity in Kiev,
which ousted Yanukovych, but also emboldened Russian forces to invade Crimea and eastern Ukraine under the pretext that Russian-speaking compatriots faced threats from Ukrainian nationalists. Using techniques honed during the invasion of Georgia, Russia expertly combined all the elements of hybrid warfare in its assault on Ukraine—conventional and unconventional forces, cyberattacks, and propaganda. Today, Russia continues to illegally occupy Crimea and maintains an active military presence in eastern Ukraine in support of separatists there. In that context, Ukraine seems to have emerged as Russia’s favorite laboratory for all forms of hybrid war.
Cyberattacks have been a primary tool of Russia’s hybrid warfare operations in Ukraine. Virtually every sector of its society and economy—media, finance, transportation, military,
politics, and energy has been the repeated target of pro-Kremlin hackers over the past three years.
396
According to Kenneth Geers, an ambassador to the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence The gloves are off. This is a place where you can do your worst without retaliation or prosecution . . . Ukraine is not France or Germany. A lot of Americans cant find it on a map, so you can practice there.’’
397
And the Kremlin has not wasted any opportunity to test and refine its cyber warfare skills. CyberBerkut, a pro-Russian group with ties to the hackers that breached the Clinton campaign and
DNC in 2016, attacked Ukraine’s Central Election Commission website into falsely show that ultra-right presidential candidate Dmytro Yarosh was the winner.
398
The extent of attacks on Ukrainian institutions quickly widened to include the ministries of infrastructure, defense, and finance as well as the country’s pension fund,
treasury, and seaport authority.
399
Russian cyberattacks in Ukraine have graduated from simply exfiltrating data and taking down websites to attacks on physical infrastructure. On at least two occasions, in December 2015 and December 2016, hackers have attacked Ukraine’s electricity distribution system, putting thousands of citizens in the dark for extended periods of time.
400
Cyber experts say that the sophistication of the attacks show a marked evolution. According to Marina
Krotofil, an industrial control systems security researcher for Honeywell In 2015 they were like a group of brutal street fighters. In
2016, they were ninjas.’’
401
The United States has sought to provide support to Ukrainian cyber defense efforts, but challenges remain. In the aftermath of the attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid, US. officials from the De-
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69 402
Ibid. 403
U.S.
Department of State, Congressional Notification of Programs to Counter Russian Influence, Jan, 2017. Andrew E. Kramer, To Battle Fake News, Ukrainian Show Features Nothing But Lies
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