عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

US Indicts Russian Intelligence Officials over Cyberattacks Targeting Ukraine

FILE PHOTO: A man holds a laptop computer as cyber code is projected on him in this illustration picture taken on May 13, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A man holds a laptop computer as cyber code is projected on him in this illustration picture taken on May 13, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration/File Photo
TT
TT

US Indicts Russian Intelligence Officials over Cyberattacks Targeting Ukraine

FILE PHOTO: A man holds a laptop computer as cyber code is projected on him in this illustration picture taken on May 13, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A man holds a laptop computer as cyber code is projected on him in this illustration picture taken on May 13, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration/File Photo

The US on Thursday charged five Russian intelligence officials and a Russian civilian with conspiring to launch cyberattacks against Ukraine and its allies in a bid to hobble Ukraine.
In a revised indictment unsealed on Thursday, the Justice Department said a cyber unit of Russia's military intelligence agency conducted "large-scale cyber operations" starting as far back as 2020, before Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The original indictment, filed in June in the US District Court for the District of Maryland, only named a single defendant: Amin Stigal.
According to Reuters, it accused him of conspiring with Russia's military intelligence agency, known as the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff, or GRU, to launch cyber attacks against computer systems in Ukraine and other countries, including a computer network maintained by an unnamed US agency in Maryland.
Thursday's news comes just one day after the US took several legal actions against Russia to combat alleged efforts to meddle in the 2024 presidential elections, including charging two employees of the Russian state media network RT and sanctioning RT and its top network editor.
It also came on the same day that the Justice Department announced it had secured two indictments against Russian TV contributor Dimitri Simes and his wife over sanctions violations and money laundering.
Earlier on Thursday, intelligence agencies in the US and the United Kingdom warned that a cyber espionage group located within Russia's GRU known as "Unit 29155" was destructively targeting critical national infrastructure.
Unit 29155, which is the group at the heart of Thursday's indictment, is a covert part of the GRU which carries out subversion, sabotage and assassination missions outside Russia, Western officials told Reuters.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

Putin Says Russia Is Ramping up Drone Production Tenfold

Russian President Vladimir Putin, 2nd right, accompanied by Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, left, and Russian Presidential Aide Aleksei Dyumin, 2n left, visits the Special Technology Center in St Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin, 2nd right, accompanied by Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, left, and Russian Presidential Aide Aleksei Dyumin, 2n left, visits the Special Technology Center in St Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
TT
TT

Putin Says Russia Is Ramping up Drone Production Tenfold

Russian President Vladimir Putin, 2nd right, accompanied by Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, left, and Russian Presidential Aide Aleksei Dyumin, 2n left, visits the Special Technology Center in St Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin, 2nd right, accompanied by Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, left, and Russian Presidential Aide Aleksei Dyumin, 2n left, visits the Special Technology Center in St Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia was ramping up drone production by around ten times to nearly 1.4 million this year in a bid to ensure the Russian armed forces win in Ukraine.

Since Russia sent tens of thousands of soldiers into Ukraine in February 2022, the war has largely been a story of grinding artillery and drone strikes along a heavily fortified 1,000-km (620-mile) front involving hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

The conflict has been a crucible for drone development - and an illustration of the importance of drones to modern warfare, from terrorizing infantry and collecting intelligence to sabotaging infrastructure and attacking arsenals.

"In total, about 140,000 unmanned aerial vehicles of various types were delivered to the armed forces in 2023," Putin said. "This year, the production of drones is planned to increase significantly. Well, to be more precise, almost 10 times."

"Whoever reacts faster to these demands on the battlefield wins," Putin said at a meeting in St Petersburg about drone production.

Both Russia and Ukraine have bought drones abroad and ramped up their own production while drone videos have illustrated the horror of the battlefield, showing deadly strikes on infantry, artillery and tanks.

EYE IN THE SKY

Inexpensive first-person view (FPV) drones - originally developed for civilian racers - are controlled by pilots on the ground and often crash into targets, laden with explosives.

For just a few hundred dollars, soldiers on both sides can inflict vast damage on the other side. A large-scale Ukrainian drone attack on Russia triggered an earthquake-sized blast at a major arsenal in the Tver region on Wednesday.

Putin said that Russia was making almost weekly advances in drone technology and needed to also develop its drone defenses, essentially technology which senses, confuses and then shoots down the attacking drones.

"The key task is to produce a wide range of aerial unmanned vehicles, to establish serial production as quickly as possible," Putin said.