BERLIN: Ukraine was fully within its rights to launch its surprise offensive into Russia’s Kursk border region as an act of self-defense, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg told German newspaper Die Welt.
The offensive launched on August 6 caught the Kremlin off guard, with Kyiv claiming to have captured dozens of settlements and more than 1,200 square kilometers (nearly 500 square miles) of territory.
“Ukraine has a right to defend itself. And according to international law, this right does not stop at the border,” Stoltenberg said in an interview with Die Welt published Saturday.
“The Russian soldiers, tanks and bases there (Kursk) are legitimate targets under international law.”
The offensive also surprised Kyiv’s allies, with Stoltenberg saying Ukraine “did not preview its planning” with NATO and that the Western military alliance “played no role.”
Stoltenberg also welcomed Germany’s commitment to remain Ukraine’s largest European military donor and second-largest worldwide, as Berlin prepares cuts to its aid to Kyiv in next year’s budget.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government came under fierce criticism for the decision last week. He says Germany will continue to supply the outgunned and outmanned Ukrainian military with the equipment it needs.
The Kursk offensive has changed little on the front line in eastern Ukraine, where Russia continues to claim incremental gains, including three villages on Friday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has acknowledged his army faces an “extremely difficult” situation near the strategic hub of Pokrovsk, in the Donetsk region, with Russian troops closing in.
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NATO chief backs Ukraine offensive in Russia’s Kursk
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NATO chief backs Ukraine offensive in Russia’s Kursk
- The offensive launched on August 6 caught the Kremlin off guard
Pro-Russian hackers claim cyberattack on French postal service
PARIS: A pro-Russian hacking group claimed responsibility for a major cyberattack that halted package deliveries by France’s national postal service just days before Christmas, prosecutors said Wednesday.
After the claim by the cybercrime group known as Noname057, French intelligence agency DGSI took over the investigation into the hacking attack, the Paris prosecutor’s office said in a statement to The Associated Press.
The group has been accused of other cyberattacks in Europe, including around a NATO summit in the Netherlands and French government sites. It was the target of a big European police operation earlier this year.
Central computer systems at French national postal service La Poste were knocked offline Monday in a distributed denial of service, or DDoS, cyberattack that still wasn’t fully resolved by Wednesday morning, the company said.
Postal workers couldn’t track package deliveries, and online payments at the company’s banking arm were also disrupted. It was a major blow to La Poste, which delivered 2.6 billion packages last year and employs more than 200,000 people, during the busiest season of the year.
France and other European allies of Ukraine allege that Russia is waging a campaign of “hybrid warfare” to sow division in Western societies and undermine their support for Ukraine. The AP has tracked more than 145 incidents including sabotage, assassinations, cyberattacks, disinformation and other hostile acts that are increasingly draining police resources.
After the claim by the cybercrime group known as Noname057, French intelligence agency DGSI took over the investigation into the hacking attack, the Paris prosecutor’s office said in a statement to The Associated Press.
The group has been accused of other cyberattacks in Europe, including around a NATO summit in the Netherlands and French government sites. It was the target of a big European police operation earlier this year.
Central computer systems at French national postal service La Poste were knocked offline Monday in a distributed denial of service, or DDoS, cyberattack that still wasn’t fully resolved by Wednesday morning, the company said.
Postal workers couldn’t track package deliveries, and online payments at the company’s banking arm were also disrupted. It was a major blow to La Poste, which delivered 2.6 billion packages last year and employs more than 200,000 people, during the busiest season of the year.
France and other European allies of Ukraine allege that Russia is waging a campaign of “hybrid warfare” to sow division in Western societies and undermine their support for Ukraine. The AP has tracked more than 145 incidents including sabotage, assassinations, cyberattacks, disinformation and other hostile acts that are increasingly draining police resources.
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