According to a cybersecurity company and the European Union, Russia "would have prepared the way" for the seizure of the Ukrainian navy ships, launching a major cyber attack on government sites and disinformation to public opinion.
A private cybersecurity firm said Moscow would launch a series of cyber attacks against Ukrainian government servers, which aimed to gather information useful for capturing ships. The EU's security commissioner also said the Kremlin launched an elaborate "disinformation campaign" with the aim of "softening public opinion" before seizing Ukrainian ships.
The US computer security firm Stealthcare said this week that cyberattacks were carried out by Carbanak and the Gamaredon Group, two hacker entities believed to be sponsored by Russian intelligence services.
According to Stealthcare, the first wave of attacks, which occurred in October this year, centered on a phishing campaign targeting government agencies in Ukraine and other Eastern European countries. The victims of these attacks had "important information" on their computers that would be stolen by hackers.
In November, another attack undermined the service ports of computer servers belonging to Ukrainian government agencies, just days before the Kerch Strait crisis. The two attacks, the Stealthcare company said, provided hackers with information that would have been highly relevant in planning the November 25 naval crisis. The company added that "there is no doubt that the attacks were a reconnaissance of the Kremlin to plan the Kerch Strait crisis".
Meanwhile, on Monday Julian King, a British diplomat who is currently the European Commissioner for the Security Union, said that Russia "paved the way for the Kerch Strait crisis" through a systematic fake news campaign that "is lasted more than a year ". The campaign, King said, included using social media to spread false rumors, such as claims that the Ukrainian government had infected the Black Sea with cholera-causing bacteria. Another Russian media report alleged that Kiev had tried to secretly transport a nuclear device to Russia-annexed Crimea via the Kerch Strait. The EU commissioner for security added that social media platforms and online search engines such as Google have a responsibility to identify and close fake accounts that spread fake news on the net ”.