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Kremlin dismisses accusations of Russia being behind cyber attacks on Ukrainian resources

On June 27, a ransomware virus that blocks access to computer files and extorts a ransom for unblocking them, attacked dozens companies in Russia and Ukraine

© Donat Sorokin/TASS

MOSCOW, July 6. /TASS/. The Kremlin considers accusations that Russia is allegedly behind the cyber-attacks on Ukrainian resources to be absurd. "Those statements (on Russia being behind the cyber-attacks) are absurd," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday when asked to comment on respective accusations announced by Kiev.

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Russian, Ukrainian companies' websites under massive cyber attack

The question addressed to Peskov specified that the virus attacked resources both Ukraine and Russia. "You just indirectly called those statements (on Russia being behind the cyber-attacks) absurd," he said.

On June 27, a ransomware virus that block access to computer files and extorts a ransom for unblocking them, attacked dozens of energy, telecommunications and financial companies and organizations in Russia and Ukraine and later on spread worldwide. Group-IB, a company dealing with prevention and investigation into cybercrimes, said the attack had been staged with the use of a Petya encrypting virus that infects computers and demands a $300-bitcoin ransom.

The head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, Alexander Turchinov, immediately rushed to blame Russia for the cyber attack, which engulfed Ukraine. Meanwhile, the virus also disrupted routine operations of Russian oil, telecommunication and financial companies. Computers in a number of agencies and state enterprises in Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark and other countries were also targeted.

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