A Ukrainian nuclear operator has condemned an “unprecedented” Russian cyberattack on its site

Energoatom, the Ukrainian public operator of nuclear power plants, condemned the “unprecedented” Russian cyberattack on its site in a press release on Tuesday, saying its operation had not been disrupted.

“On August 16, 2022, the most powerful cyberattack since the beginning of the Russian invasion took place on the official website of Energoatom,” the operator said in a telegram. The site was “attacked from Russian territory,” he added.

The Russian group “People’s Cyber ​​Army” used 7.25 million Internet robots to attack the Energotam site for three hours, assuring the Ukrainian company that the hacking attempt “did not have a significant impact on the work of the Energotam site”. .

The Telegram channel, dubbed the “People’s Cyber ​​Army” in Russian, called on its supporters in the afternoon to attack the Energotam site.

In the evening, she announced a “change”, now targeting the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, whose site was experiencing difficulties.

The attacks came shortly after Moscow launched an offensive against its neighbour, amid tension surrounding Ukraine’s nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia, which has been occupied by Russian forces since March and is in the country’s south.

Several strikes, which Moscow and Kyiv blame each other for, have targeted the installation, which is Europe’s largest, raising fears of a nuclear disaster.

Ukraine has four nuclear power plants that, before the invasion, provided half of the electricity production of this vast country bordering the European Union.

Then a Soviet republic, Ukraine was already the scene of the worst nuclear disaster in history in 1986, when a reactor at its Chernobyl power plant (North) exploded, contaminating much of Europe.

Kyiv shut down its last operating Chernobyl reactor in 2000. After the invasion began last February, Russian forces seized control of the facility and a highly radioactive area around it for several weeks, within a 30-kilometer radius.