The UK government has said it will invest up to £25 million to strengthen Ukraine’s cyber defences against Russia.

The Ukraine Cyber Programme (UCP) builds on an investment of £6.35 million last year.

Around £16 million of the investment will be provided by the UK with potentially £9 million provided by Ukraine’s other allies.

The government said that the programme will help protect infrastructure and services by bolstering Ukraine’s cyber defence capabilities allowing them to detect, respond and prevent Russian cyberattacks.

It added that the scheme will provide forensic capabilities to allow Ukrainian cyber experts to analyse system compromises, attribute attackers and build better evidence to prosecute indiscriminate attacks.

Ukraine has already fought a number of cyber attacks from Russian forces, including destructive wiper-ware attacks and covert espionage-ware attacks.

Commenting on the news, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the funding was vital to increasing Ukraine’s defence systems.

“Russia’s appalling attacks on Ukraine are not limited to their barbaric land invasion, but also involve sickening attempts to attack their cyber infrastructure that provides vital services, from banking to energy supplies, to innocent Ukrainian people”, Sunak said.

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