Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) says its cyber specialists carried out a sweeping attack that paralyzed the digital resources of Russia’s Central Election Commission during nationwide voting on Sept. 14, including elections being staged in occupied Ukrainian territories.
A source in HUR told Kyiv Post that the operation aimed to disrupt online voting in what Kyiv called “illegal elections” held by Moscow in the annexed regions of Ukraine.
The powerful distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack targeted several key Russian systems including: servers of the Central Election Commission and its remote e-voting platform, backbone routers of the state-owned telecom provider Rostelecom, and servers of Russia’s main government services portal “Gosuslugi.”
As a result, access to digital platforms was paralyzed for hours, preventing many Russians from casting ballots in gubernatorial and mayoral races across the country.
Russian officials acknowledged disruptions. “The internet went down in the CEC building – it’s an attack,” commission head Ella Pamfilova said, as quoted by Russian media.
Roskomnadzor, the country’s internet regulator, also confirmed failures in remote voting services, blaming “traffic degradation on Rostelecom’s backbone network.”
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, condemned what it called Moscow’s “imitation of elections” in occupied Crimea and Sevastopol. On Sept. 14, Russia held so-called by-elections for municipal councils in Simferopol and Sevastopol, as well as a vote for the “governor” of Sevastopol. Kyiv stressed the process violated international law and that any individuals “elected” have no legal basis to hold office.
“The organization of so-called ‘elections’ on occupied Ukrainian territory is illegal, and their results are null and void,” the ministry said, calling on partners not to recognize the outcome or engage with occupation authorities. It warned that those involved would face accountability under Ukrainian law and international sanctions.
Kyiv has repeatedly vowed to counter what it calls Russia’s illegal attempts to legitimize its occupation through staged elections. HUR described the Sept. 14 cyber operation as an act of “cyber-retaliation” tied directly to Russia’s efforts to organize votes in Ukrainian territories under military control.