Ukraine’s navy website experience a cyberattack on July 9, causing the site to be down for several down for several hours, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense wrote in a statement.
The Ministry blames Russia for the attack, saying that the country is intentionally conducting information operations against Ukraine.
As a result of the attack, several documents and messages related to NATO’s Sea Breeze 2021 military exercises in the Black Sea basin were published. The Ministry of Defense described the messages as “mostly fake.”
The Ministry says that “not a single document was taken from the IT systems of the Ukrainian Armed Forces as a result of the information leak.”
The Ministry also announced that there had been multiple unsuccessful DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks on its own website.
The attack comes in the wake of Russian claims on June 23 that it fired warning shots at British ship HMS Defender after it crossed into territorial waters of the coast of Crimea during the Sea Breeze military exercises.
The British Ministry of Defense denied that warning shots had been fired, stating that Russia had been engaging in a “gunnery exercise” nearby.
The Sea Breeze 2021 exercises, which involved 32 countries and finished on July 10, are considered to have proceeded successfully.
US Navy Captain Stuart Bauman, who led the American contingent participating in the drills, said that the levels of teamwork and co-operation were the “highest imaginable.”
The exercises involved 5,000 troops, 32 ships, 40 aircraft carriers, and 18 special operations and dive teams.
