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Ukraine has allegedly breached the network of a key Russian warplane manufacturer, claiming to have stolen confidential data.
The Ukraine Ministry of Defence’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) said that it launched a cyber attack on the Tupolev division of the United Aircraft Company, a Russian state-owned aerospace and defence company responsible for developing supersonic strategic bombers like the TU-160M White Swan.
An anonymous source told the Kyiv Post that the GUR claimed to have exfiltrated 4.4 gigabytes from Tupolev containing classified information, including the personal data of company personnel, engineer and designer résumés, closed meeting minutes, procurement documents and internal communications, which include messages between company management.
“The value of the data obtained is hard to overstate. There is now virtually nothing secret left in Tupolev’s operations as far as Ukrainian intelligence is concerned,” the source said.
“We now have comprehensive information on individuals directly involved in maintaining Russia’s strategic aviation. The effects of this operation will be felt both on the ground and in the skies.”
Alongside the breach, Tupolev’s website was defaced with an image of a giant owl holding a plane, a nod to the GUR, whose emblem is an owl wielding a sword.
While the GUR did not announce when the breach happened, the source told the Kyiv Post that they were in Tupolev’s systems for some time, a claim that is backed up by the website defacement image, which shows imagery celebrating Victory Day, which occurs on 9 May to celebrate the anniversary of World War II ending.
Cyber attacks between Russia and Ukraine have played a major part in the conflict between the two nations.
In March, Ukraine’s state train operator, Ukrzaliznytsia, confirmed a cyber attack, which it said affected its digital services, including the mobile app used for purchasing train tickets.
“Ukrzaliznytsia’s online systems have been subjected to a large-scale targeted cyber attack. The restoration of all systems lasted all day and continues now,” said Ukrzaliznytsia in a statement on Telegram.
“Ukrzaliznytsia specialists are closely cooperating with the cyber department of the Security Service of Ukraine.”
While ticket sales were affected, leading to long queues at stations as passengers attempted to purchase physical tickets, Ukrzaliznytsia confirmed that train schedules and transport operations remained unaffected.
“The enemy failed to do the key thing: train traffic is stable, they run clearly, without delays, and all operational processes of the movement are set up in a backup format,” added Ukrzaliznytsia.
Just days later, Russia suffered a railway outage suspected to be a revenge attack from Ukraine.
In a statement on 31 March 2025, the Russian Centre for Monitoring and Control of the Public Communication Network (CMU SSOP) said it had received a large number of reports of issues with its application and website.
“On March 31, starting at 06:00, the Public Communication Network Monitoring and Control Center (PCNCNC) recorded a surge in requests about problems with the Moscow Metro application,” said CMU SSOP.
“As of 12:00, the problem with the application’s availability persists. Specialists are working to resolve the issue.”
Despite efforts to fix the issue, the next day, DownDetector.su showed that users still struggled with the subway’s online services, with the Moscow Metro app not working.
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