Massive cyberattack cripples Russia's election commission, sources
Photo: Resources of Russia's Central Election Commission paralyzed by large-scale Ukraine's cyberattack (Getty Images)
Due to the illegal elections held in temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories, cyber specialists from Ukraine's Defense Intelligence (HUR) carried out a massive attack on the digital infrastructure of Russia's Central Election Commission on the so-called "single voting day" of September 14, 2025, sources say.
According to Ukrainian intelligence, the goal of the attack was to block online voting in Russian elections, which the occupying authorities are also conducting in occupied parts of Ukraine.
The powerful DDoS attack targeted digital resources involved in the illegal elections, including:
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Servers of the Russian Central Election Commission and the remote electronic voting platform used in online voting for mayoral and gubernatorial races in Russia;
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Backbone routers of Rostelecom;
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Servers of Russia's state digital services portal Gosuslugi.
As a result, the work of these digital services was temporarily paralyzed, and many Russians were unable to cast their votes in regional elections.
"In the Central Election Commission building, the internet has gone down — it's an attack," said Ella Pamfilova, the head of Russia's Central Election Commission, in an emotional comment.
Russia's communications watchdog Roskomnadzor also confirmed problems with remote voting services. According to them, "due to failures in Rostelecom's network, there was a degradation of traffic on the backbone network."
Cyberattacks against Russia
Earlier, Ukraine's HUR cyber specialists targeted one of Russia's largest private internet providers servicing security agencies.
In addition, HUR hackers struck a serious blow against Gazprom, which is deeply involved in supporting Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.
They also attacked the Russian company Gaskar Integration, one of the largest drone suppliers for the Russian military.
