Amid a protracted debate on the Defending Ukraine Sovereignty Act of 2022 in the US Congress, the US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee leaders stressed that Russian cyberattacks against Ukraine would be high on the list of acts to prompt sanctions against Moscow even before an invasion.
Chris Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, pointed out that if there were pre-invasion sanctions, they’d be connected to Ukraine-aimed Russian cyberattacks.
According to Politico, it’s looking increasingly likely that a Russian hacking operation could be the first to trigger sanctions since some senators are pushing to include them as part of a wider bill on actions against Russia if it invades Ukraine.
Senate Foreign Relations Chair Bob Menendez also confirmed the rumors, saying they have currently on the agenda retaliatory measures against Russia for cyberattacks on Ukraine.
The US Senate is already convinced that Moscow’s behind the several cyberattacks against Ukraine, including last month’s hacking which crashed nearly 70 government websites.
However, the senators’ positions on the issue diverged since some argue that new sanctions against Russia should be introduced irrespective of an invasion while others believe such sanctions for cyberattacks should be included in the Defending Ukraine Sovereignty Act of 2022
The Act, which is currently under scrutiny in the US Senate after it was introduced by the White House to the Congress in mid-January, entails sanctions against Moscow in the event of an incursion into Ukraine.
In line with the bill, the US will provide Ukraine with ample military assistance to help it deter and contain any Russian aggression.
The Acts also envisages deterrence measures against Russian officials, financial institutions, and economic operations, including as possible even Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project to Germany.
Menendez and Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, the committee’s top Republican, have already worked hard in recent weeks hammering out a sanctions package Menendez described as the mother of all sanctions, which is meant to serve as a compromise between different approaches of sanctioning Russia before or after an invasion.
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