1. Identify the norms and principles of international law affected by the cyber activity of the Russian Federation.
2. Propose the legal actions (adjudication) to be taken by injured states based on the Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts.

Case "Cyber threats to European countries during Russo-Ukraine war"

The international experts point to significant risks on a much larger scale that couldbe caused by indiscriminateusage ofcyber weaponstargeting satellite communications and most dangerous energy facilities, such as nuclear power plants.

Just few hoursbefore the ground invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Russian cyber groupsattacked the ground infrastructure of a KA-SAT satellite owned by the US company ViaSat to disrupt the"high-valuecommunications" of the Ukrainian military, police and intelligence services. However, thatcyberintervention has led torepercussions across Europe, shutting downwindturbines in Germany, and disrupting Internetconnectivity in France, Greece, Poland, Italy and Hungary.

Cyber-attacks cause the most damage to critical infrastructure that is essential for the life of civilian population protected by international humanitarian law during armed conflict, as well as humanitarian services providers assisting them to avoid or reduce injuries and losses. Fire and cyber attacks on power-generating facilities, including gas pipeline systems, power plants and nuclear power plant units, constitute a serious threat to the security of not only the Ukrainian population but also the civilians of neighboring countries. On April 12, 2022, due to the joint efforts of Ukrainian government cybersecurity agencies, Microsoft and ESET, a cyberattack by the APT group Sandwormwas prevented, which used hacking techniques similar to those used during the attack in December 2016, when malware called Industroyer was used to shut off power in Kyiv. According to ESETreport, the key feature of Industroyer is the ability to disrupt management systems of production process, thus the impact of such a threat can range from simple power outages and cascading failures to more serious equipment damage.The causalities of cyber attacks are disruptions in thesupply of electricity to important civil infrastructure facilities in European countries, which are interconnected to integrated energy system ENTSO-E, joined by Ukraine on March 16, 2022.

Russia's irresponsible use of cyber weapons must be stopped, the High Representative of the European Union said in astatement on May 10, 2022. A coherent European position provides a basis for further joint steps. It is time to take more decisive steps against aviolator of international law, so that such a violation does notremain unresponded anditisnottacitly approved by statesas acceptable practice in international relations.

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