KYIV (AFP) — Ukraine said Tuesday that it had carried out a successful cyberattack that knocked out a server used by Russia’s defense ministry, temporarily disrupting communications for military units.

“As a result of the cyberattack, the exchange of information between the units of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, which used the indicated server located in Moscow, was stopped,” Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence unit said in a statement.

It added that the cyberattack was “ongoing.”

Agence France-Presse was unable to verify the claim, and Russian officials had not immediately responded to the alleged hacking.

But Russian authorities did announce Tuesday that a “technical problem” had shut down several internet sites in the country, though the defense ministry was not mentioned.

Russia’s digital development ministry said the problem was linked to “Domain Name System Security Extensions” and was resolved by Tuesday evening, though “disruptions” could persist “for a certain time.”

Civilian compensation

Meanwhile, The United Nations’ top court will hand down its verdict on Wednesday in a case brought by Ukraine against Russia for alleged “terrorism financing” and “racial discrimination” after its annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Kyiv has accused Moscow of being a “terrorist state” whose support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine was a harbinger of the full-fledged 2022 invasion.

It wants Russia to compensate all civilians caught up in the conflict, as well as victims from Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was shot down over eastern Ukraine.

The case predates Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The International Court of Justice will decide on Friday whether it has jurisdiction to rule in a separate case over that war.

Russia is also in the dock for alleged breaches of an international convention on racial discrimination due to its treatment of the Tatar minority and Ukrainian speakers in occupied Crimea.

During hearings on the case, Alexander Shulgin, Russia’s ambassador to the Netherlands, accused Ukraine of “blatant lies and false accusations... even to this court.”

Top Ukrainian diplomat Anton Korynevych retorted that Russia was trying to “wipe us off the map.”

“Beginning in 2014, Russia illegally occupied Crimea and then engaged in a campaign of cultural erasure, taking aim at ethnic Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars,” Korynevych said.

The case started in 2017 and has seen lengthy exchanges in the ICJ’s Great Hall of Justice, plus thousands of pages of documents submitted to the judges.