U.S. Charges Russian Intelligence Officials in Cyberattack Scheme

The U.S. has charged five Russian intelligence officers and a Russian civilian for conspiring to execute cyberattacks against Ukraine and its allies. The updated indictment outlines large-scale cyber operations conducted by Russia's military intelligence agency since 2020, targeting Ukraine, NATO countries, and U.S. infrastructure.

The United States on Thursday charged five Russian intelligence officers and a Russian civilian with planning cyberattacks against Ukraine and its allies, according to a revised indictment unsealed by the Justice Department. The document reveals that a cyber unit from Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU, has been conducting extensive cyber operations since 2020, predating the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In addition to Ukraine, the group allegedly targeted at least 26 NATO countries by scanning their systems for vulnerabilities. Russia's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.

The original indictment, filed in June in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, identified a lone defendant: Amin Stigal. It accused Stigal of collaborating with the GRU to initiate cyberattacks on computer systems in Ukraine and other nations, including a network managed by an unnamed U.S. agency in Maryland. The recently named GRU officers in the indictment are Yuriy Denisov, Vladislav Borovkov, Denis Denisenko, Dmitry Goloshubov, and Nikolay Korchagin.

The charges come only a day after the U.S. took multiple legal actions against Russia to thwart alleged interference in the 2024 presidential elections, including charges against employees of the Russian state media network RT. Additionally, the Justice Department unveiled two indictments against Russian TV contributor Dimitri Simes and his wife for sanctions violations and money laundering.

Intelligence agencies in the U.S., Britain, and the European Union recently warned about Unit 29155, a cyber espionage group within Russia's GRU, destructively targeting critical national infrastructure. Unit 29155 has been linked to various subversion activities, including a failed assassination of a former Russian spy in Britain in 2018 and an attempted coup in Montenegro two years earlier. The unit also executed damaging cyberattacks against Kyiv using data-wiping malware "WhisperGate" before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

(With inputs from agencies.)