Russian proxies in occupied Crimea announced on Sept. 22 that there was a cyberattack of an “unprecedented” scale.
Oleg Kryuchkov, a Russian proxy official in the occupied peninsula, stated on Telegram that there were disruptions to internet services across Crimea. At this time it is unknown whether the cyberattack is continuing, and Kyiv has not commented on it yet.
The attack occurred after the Russian Defense Ministry announced that a Ukrainian missile had struck Russia’s Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol earlier in the day on Sept. 22.
Cyber warfare has been a critical part of Russia’s war on Ukraine, even before the full-scale invasion, as well as other Russian acts of aggression towards Estonia and other neighboring countries.
Ukraine has invested heavily in its cyber defense capabilities, but also increased its own offensive cyber tactics after the beginning of the full-scale invasion.