The Ukrainian Presidential Administration has also said that everything was under control and there was “no threat to the work of the website.”Several hours later, after the statement of the Administration, the website worked normally, with all links on the main page being accessible – reports BBC.
It said recent hacking was Russia’s response to Mr Poroshenko’s decision to ban some of Russia’s biggest social media networks, similar to Facebook and widely popular in Ukraine. Ukraine’s earlier decision imposed the ban on Russian sites for its annexation of Crimea in 2014 and alleged involvement in the constant conflicts in eastern Ukraine. To be more precise, those targeted websites include social networks VK.com and Odnoklassniki, search engine Yandex and the Mail.ru email service.
Important to notice, that more than 25 million Ukrainians, in a country of about 43 million people, use the Russian sites to connect with friends.
Russia’s foreign ministry condemned the ban, accusing Ukraine of trying to create an “authoritarian state.”
On the flip-side, Ukraine’s parliament on Tuesday banned public display of the orange-and-black St George’s ribbon, which is used in Russia as a symbol of Soviet Victory in the World War II.
Russian social media sites have played a big role in both mobilizing separatist, pro-Russia sentiment in the Ukraine’s eastern regions and in disseminating anti-Ukrainian hate speech, said Eugen Fedchenko, the director of the journalism school at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Kiev.
Poroshenko said the new restrictions were necessary to further protect Ukraine from Kremlin hybrid warfare, including disinformation campaigns, propaganda and military attacks.
Supporters of the ban said it would also protect Ukrainians from the Russian security services’ ability to monitor and gather metadata from the sites’ users. Ukrainian government officials said the sites are closely monitored by Russia’s FSB, the successor agency to the KGB – Reports Los Angeles Times.
