- Up to £25 million expansion to harden Ukraine’s cyber
defences as Russia continues its callous attacks
- Funding will protect critical national infrastructure and
vital services through bolstered cyber defence capabilities to
Ukraine, enabling them to detect, respond and prevent Russian
cyber-attacks.
- Cyber defence funding comes as the Prime Minister prepares to
make the case for the private sector to join the fight to push
back Russia by investing in Ukraine
The UK will roll out a major expansion to its cyber defence
programme in Ukraine, protecting the country’s critical national
infrastructure from crippling Russian attacks.
The programme, which supports Ukraine’s Government to rapidly
respond to and defend vital government services against
debilitating cyber-attacks, will be boosted by an injection of up
to £25 million and a two-year expansion.
The package will include £16 million in UK funding and potential
for a further £9 million contribution from international allies.
It is the latest tranche of UK support to Ukraine as the country
mounts its counteroffensive against Russian forces that have
brutally invaded the country, using all domains to sow
instability and attempt to destroy Ukraine’s rightful
sovereignty.
The Prime Minister, who will this week make the case for the
private sector to join the counteroffensive against Russia by
supporting Ukraine through investment, will say that it is vital
the international community hardens Ukraine’s defences to enable
it to protect and grow investment into the country.
Ukraine has successfully fought back a number of cyber-attacks by
Russian forces, including destructive wiper-ware attacks and
covert espionage-ware attacks.
Prime Minister said:
Russia’s appalling attacks on Ukraine are not limited to their
barbaric land invasion, but also involve sickening attempts to
attack their cyber infrastructure that provides vital services,
from banking to energy supplies, to innocent Ukrainian people.
This funding is critical to stopping those onslaughts, hardening
Ukraine’s cyber defences and increasing the country’s ability to
detect and disable the malware targeted at them.
The UK-funded Ukraine Cyber Programme (UCP) uses world-leading
expertise, from both the private and public sector, to protect
Ukraine’s critical national infrastructure and vital public
services.
The support, which builds on the Foreign Secretary’s announcement
of £6.35 million for the programme last year, will also fund and
provide forensic capabilities to enable Ukrainian cyber experts
to analyse system compromises, attribute attackers and build
better evidence to prosecute these indiscriminate attacks.
In addition to boosting cyber defences, the UK has also stepped
up its military support to Ukraine.
This week, the UK contributed a further £250 million to the
International Fund for Ukraine (IFU), which announced it would
provide a major package of air defence, including radars, guns
and ammunition to Kyiv to protect Ukrainian cities from
indiscriminate Russian attacks.
That announcement followed the delivery of the UK’s long-range
missile strike capability Storm Shadow last month, which has
provided Ukraine with game-changing capability to defend itself
from Russian attacks and degrade the capability of invading
Russian forces.
