France – AFP
The European Union is mobilizing “all its resources” to help Ukraine in the wake of a cyber attack on government websites, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Friday.
Borrell confirmed that the European Union’s political and security committee will hold an urgent meeting to discuss the attack, which “deserves condemnation.”
Borrell told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign ministers that the EU’s rapid electronic response unit had been activated. “We are mobilizing all our resources to help Ukraine deal with this type of cyber attack,” he said.
All EU governments were asked to participate, “even if Ukraine is not a member”, Borrell said. He pointed out that it was too early to “point the finger of blame at anyone.” He continued, “We have no evidence,” but “you can imagine who did it.”
On Friday, a number of government websites in Ukraine were subjected to a major information attack, the source of which was not identified, the authorities announced, at a time when tension escalated between Kiev and Moscow.
Swedish Foreign Minister Anne Linde said: “The cyber attack is exactly the kind of thing we were warned regarding that we were afraid of.” She added that the attack “raises tensions (…) so we must be very careful in our response to Russia.”
“If there are attacks on Ukraine, we will be firm, strong and firm in our response,” she said.
For her part, German Foreign Minister Annalina Birbock said that relations with Russia must now be dealt with patiently and calmly. Berbock is expected to meet her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on Tuesday, in Moscow. She added, “We are doing everything necessary to avoid any further escalation.”
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