The Vatican website was inaccessible on Wednesday night following “abnormal access attempts,” the Holy See press service said, a cyberattack allegedly attributed to Russia by the Ukrainian ambassador.
“Technical investigations were underway (at the end of the day) due to abnormal attempts to access the site,” said Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See’s press service.
On Wednesday afternoon, several Vatican websites were offline for several hours, with the official vatican.va website still inaccessible at midnight.
Pope Francis criticizes the war in Ukraine
This alleged computer attack comes a day after strong reactions from Russia, which expressed its “outrage” after statements by Pope Francis about the alleged role of Russian ethnic minorities in the conflict in Ukraine.
In an interview published Monday by the American Jesuit magazine AmericaThe Pope spoke of the “cruelty” Ukraine is facing with the Russian offensive, pointing out in particular the Chechens and Buryats.
“Russian terrorists touch Vatican State sites today: many web pages of different structures of the Roman Curia have become inaccessible!”, tweeted the Ukrainian ambassador to the Vatican, Andrii Yurash.
“Russian hackers show once again the true face of Russian politics,” he added, calling it a “response to the latest statements” by the Pope.
Source: BFM TV
