ST. PETERSBURG, September 20. /TASS/. Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko called the September 18 detonations of communication devices in Lebanon a wide-scale terrorist cyberattack, which harmed thousands of innocent people, including children.

"We could not have avoided the ongoing escalation in the Middle East at our international forum; we could not have avoided mentioning our concerns over the missile strike at Lebanon and, of course, we could not have failed to condemn the wide-scale terrorist cyberattack using household communication devices, carried out on Lebanese streets - a heinous, indiscriminate attack that harmed thousands of innocent people, including children," Matviyenko said at the 4th Eurasian Women’s Forum.

She noted that Russia’s position regarding the ongoing escalation in the Middle East was "clearly stated by the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Russian Representative to the UN."

Federation Council Deputy Speaker Konstantin Kosachev also condemned the attack, noting that some proposed to reflect the Forum participants’ reaction in the forum outcome document, but it was decided against that in order to "preserve its positive, constructive character in accordance with the atmosphere that the participants worked in during the past three days."

Multiple explosions of communication devices occurred in Lebanon on September 17 and 18. On the first day, a large number of pagers blew up almost simultaneously in various regions of Lebanon. According to the country’s Health Ministry, 12 people, including two children, were killed, and about 2,800 more were hospitalized.

On the following day, a new wave of blasts swept across Lebanon. This time, walkie-talkies, phones, fingerprint scanners, as well as devices operating on solar and lithium-ion batteries exploded. At least 25 were killed and 608 were injured in the repeat attack.