The Netherlands today announced a cyberattack operation conducted by the Russian military intelligence agency GRU in a targeted antenna – Live Update

The Dutch Defense Minister announced on Thursday that the Dutch defense and intelligence services, in collaboration with British partners, had stopped a cyber-attack carried out by Russian military intelligence agents in April and aimed at the security agency. United Nations chemical weapons surveillance.

Dutch Defense Minister Ank Bijleveld-Schouten made the announcement on Thursday alongside Britain's ambassador to the Netherlands, claiming that the so-called operation to attack the organization for the first time. Chemical Weapons Ban (OPCW) was suspended on 13 April.

Dutch officials have identified at least four men among Russian agents linked to the so-called GRU operation and said they were expelled from the Netherlands immediately after the plot was foiled in April. At Thursday's press conference, the Dutch authorities showed footage of an uncovered rental vehicle, parked near the headquarters of the OPCW in The Hague, filled with computer equipment and transformers used in the alleged conspiracy.

The revelation of the plot and the success of its failure came just hours after British Defense Minister Gavin Williamson at a NATO summit with US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and other allies, called Cyber ​​attacks of Russia in recent years the "shares of a pariah state", and promised that NATO would expose "the harmful acts of Moscow.

The British ambassador to the Netherlands, Peter Wilson, said that the plot against the OPCW showed a "total disregard" on the part of Russia with regard to the mission of the IAC. agency responsible for investigating illegal chemical weapons attacks around the world. He noted that the plot had been halted in April while the OPCW was working to confirm British allegations that GRU agents attempt to assassinate former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in England, and to confirm an alleged chemical attack by the Syrian army supported by Russia in Douma, Syria.

"The disruption of this attempt at attacking the OPCW depended on the expertise and professionalism of the Dutch security services in partnership with the United Kingdom," Wilson said. "The OPCW is a respected international organization that is working to rid the world of chemical weapons, and hostile action against it is a total disregard for this vital mission."

Dutch Defense Minister Bijleveld-Schouten said that Russian intelligence officers had also targeted the investigation in the Netherlands. Malian Airlines flight 17 breakdown on the Ukraine.

"We are aware of the interest of the Russian intelligence services for this investigation and have taken the appropriate measures." she says. "We remain very alert about this."

Ambassador Wilson said that Britain and the Netherlands "would intensify our combined action against" the GRU. We will shed light on their activities. We will expose their methods and share this with our allies. "He added that more severe sanctions would be imposed on Russia in retaliation for" malignant activity "of Moscow.

Bijleveld-Schouten said the US Department of Justice would unveil the charges brought next Thursday against Russian intelligence agents involved in alleged cyber attacks. She added that the Russian ambassador to the Netherlands was summoned to the Netherlands Foreign Ministry on Thursday to be criticized for the "unacceptable" behavior of Moscow.