Elena Panina: NATO has dragged Ukraine into its cyber networks

МОСКВА, 26 января 2022, Институт РУССТРАТ. The "digital" memorandum of Ukraine and NATO, which revealed the Alliance's "umbrella" over Ukraine's cyberspace, is aimed at attacks on Russian networks, according to Elena Panina, director of the RUSSTRAT Institute. The new agreement between Kiev and the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI) goes far beyond the modernisation of Ukrainian networks, which was trumpeted by the Ukrainian mass media. It opens the NATO "umbrella" over the cyberspace of Ukraine and, moreover, prepares cyber strikes on Russian network resources. This is how the director of the RUSSTRAT Institute Elena Panina commented on the updated memorandum on joint work on technological projects, which was signed on January 17 by the Director General of the NCI, Colonel of the Belgian army Ludwig Decamps and the head of the mission of Ukraine to NATO Natalia Galibarenko. Unfortunately, this event was ignored by the Russian press. And the Ukrainian media hastened to hide it in a fog of unintelligible formulations like "introduction of information technologies and communication services". In reality, there are much more serious things behind this document. First of all, within the framework of the initiative, Ukraine gets access to NATO military networks: from the malware information exchange platform to the aerospace threat early warning system. These networks allow Kiev and Brussels to quickly exchange data via secure communication channels separated from the Internet. And the Ukrainian military is connecting to critical intelligence from NATO radars, drones and surveillance stations. In addition, NATO cybersecurity specialists are being sent to Kiev. They are designed not only to train local personnel, but also to protect unreliable computer networks of Ukraine, including to establish a stable closed tactical link between the units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In fact, Brussels intends to transfer the control system of the Ukrainian army to the Alliance's communication standards. NATO has been allocating money for this since 2015 within the framework of the Command, Control, Communications and Computer Science (C4) Trust Fund, which is curated by NCI. Now, new tranches should be expected along this line at the expense of taxpayers of NATO member countries. Moreover, NATO specialists are going to identify the "intruders" who were behind the recent cyber attacks on the websites of Ukrainian government agencies. Moreover, the perpetrators are appointed in advance - these are, of course, "Russian hackers", acting without fail "under the auspices of the GRU of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation", as Ukrainian newspapers like to write. In contrast, the European press is more outspoken. It states that Ukraine is de facto turning into the arena of the battle between NATO and Russia — so far only in cyberspace. In particular, the publication in the Swiss Le Temps "Cyber war has already begun for NATO" from January 21 draws attention to itself. It explicitly states that the Alliance is conducting active actions against Russia in the computer sphere and is "testing Russian networks." A revealing self-exposure! Let me remind you that the notorious attack on Ukrainian websites, committed just three days before the signing of the memorandum, consisted in posting an appeal that promised the residents of Ukraine retribution "for Volyn, for OUN/UPA, for Galicia, for Polesie and for historical lands”. Only a blind person can not see the Polish handwriting in this. Nevertheless, Kiev and Brussels immediately saw a "Russian trace" in the attack. Before us is another provocation under a false flag, a favourite technique of the West, which it has been using with varying success for a long time. Under this pretext, NATO is now dragging Ukraine into its cyber networks and, without hiding, is preparing attacks on Russian network resources.   New provocative attacks on Ukrainian online resources are also possible, which will be immediately declared by Brussels and Kiev "part of Russia's hybrid war against Ukraine", used to sharply aggravate relations with Moscow and played out as an excuse to crack down on the People's Republics of Donbass.