UK to roll out 'critical' expansion to cyber defence programme in Ukraine
The UK is set to deliver a "major expansion" to its cyber defence programme in Ukraine as the war-torn country continues its counter-offensive against Russia.
In a statement from the Prime Minister's office, the programme is for "protecting the country's critical national infrastructure from crippling Russian attacks".
Boosted by an injection of up to £25m and a two-year expansion, the programme will support Ukraine's government to "rapidly respond to and defend vital government services against debilitating cyber-attacks", Rishi Sunak's office says.
The statement says that the package will include £16m in UK funding and the potential for a further £9mn contribution from international allies.
This support for Ukraine comes as the country continues to mount its counter-offensive against the Russian forces that have invaded it.
Mr Sunak this week is expected to make the case for the private sector to join the counter-offensive against Russia by supporting Ukraine through investment.
He will say that it is "vital the international community hardens Ukraine's defences to enable it to protect and grow investment into the country", the PM's office says.
Ukraine has, according to the Prime Minister's office, "successfully fought back a number of cyber-attacks by Russian forces", including destructive wiper-ware attacks and covert espionage-ware attacks.
'This funding is critical'
Mr Sunak 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 sectors, to protect Ukraine's critical national infrastructure and vital public services.
The support builds on the Foreign Secretary's announcement of £6.35m for the programme last year, and 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.
The UK announced that is will contribute a further £250m to the International Fund for Ukraine (IFU), which revealed 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 a game-changing capability to defend itself from Russian attacks and degrade the capability of invading Russian forces.
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