As part of Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, the world has witnessed an unrelenting cyber assault against Ukraine's critical national infrastructure, from banking to energy supplies and innocent Ukrainian people.
As a result, The Foreign Ministries of Canada, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States have formalised the Tallinn Mechanism on 20 December 2023. It aims to coordinate and facilitate civilian cyber capacity building to help Ukraine uphold its fundamental right to self-defence in cyber space, and address longer-term cyber resilience needs.
The UK's primary delivery agent of cyber capacity building in Ukraine is our CSSF UK-Ukraine Cyber Programme, expanded by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in June 2023. The programme has delivered over £10m to bolster Ukraine's cyber defences since the invasion.
Through this programme, the UK has stood side by side with Ukrainian cyber defenders. For example, the UK funded its partner Mandiant to combat a reported Russian cyber-attack it attributed to Sandworm, a unit within Russian Military Intelligence (GRU), against Ukraine's energy infrastructure causing a power outage.
Minister of State in the Cabinet Office, and lead Minister for the Conflict Stability and Security Fund Baroness Neville-Rolfe said:
The UK and Ukraine are fighting side by side in the cyberwar against Russia whose appalling attacks know no bounds. Russia is attacking Ukraine's cyber infrastructure in order to harm innocent people, choke the economy and sow confusion.
That is why the UK is supporting Ukraine with state of the art technology, tools and expertise to thwart these cruel attacks, including those on critical infrastructure. Our support remains steadfast.
The Mechanism aims to interface routinely with other donor initiatives, coordinate and de-conflict, including regular engagement with the EU and NATO.
