Washington. According to the US government, Russia is responsible for the recent hacking of several Ukrainian websites. This affected the Defense Ministry and several public sector banks at the beginning of the week.

“We believe the Russian government is responsible for this week’s massive cyber attack on Ukraine’s banks,” US Assistant National Security Adviser Anne Neuberger told the White House on Friday.

The effect of the attack was limited. However, if Russia launches an invasion of Ukraine, more and more serious cyberattacks can be expected, she said. Great Britain also said in the evening that, according to its findings, Russia was behind the hacker attacks.

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Tuesday’s attack is being described as a so-called DDoS attack. Websites are loaded with a large number of requests and eventually shut down. Hence, at times, card payments from state banks did not work anymore.

As recently as January, the websites of dozens of Ukrainian ministries and institutions were shut down; Kiev suspected Russian attack behind this.