Ukraine mulls war crime classification for Russian cyberattacks

Russian cyberattacks against Ukraine's critical infrastructure since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war are being considered by Ukraine to be classified as war crimes, with Ukraine's Chief Digital Transformation Officer Victor Zhora noting that the classification is appropriate as cyberattacks have been leveraged by Russia to support its military operations in the country, The Hill reports. "When we observe the situation in cyberspace we notice some coordination between kinetic strikes and cyberattacks, and since the majority of kinetic attacks are organized against civilians being a direct act of war crime supportive actions in cyber can be considered as war crimes," said Zhora, who noted the cyberattack against DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy investor, as one of the instances where Russia supported military warfare with cyber operations. Ukraine has also been looking for evidence of military operation-related cyberattacks, as well as working with the International Criminal Court to discuss potential action against Russia. "We are discussing completely new terms and ideas on how to classify these attacks, which happened during the war, which have never happened before," said Zhora.