The end of 2024 turned out to be dramatic for Ukraine not only on the front line. Ten days before the New Year, Russia carried out their largest and, it must be admitted, most effective cyberattack on the Ukrainian government system, destroying state electronic registries of real estate, businesses, births, deaths, marriages, and many other databases.
As a result of this attack, all real estate transactions were put on hold. It is also still unclear whether backup copies of the registers were damaged or whether the data was interfered with in any way.
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This cyberattack is especially painful for the government because President Zelensky and his team were proud of their digitalization strategy, launched in 2019. Very quickly, most citizens were persuaded to install in their smartphones the “Diya” application which is directly linked to almost all government services. “Electronic public administration” was President Zelensky’s greatest achievement before the full-scale aggression of Russia.
It is not clear whether Russia planned this cyberattack as a New Year “gift” to Ukraine, or whether the timing was accidental but, for sure, the approach of Christmas and New Year initially softened the blow.
In any case, after three days of frenzied discussion about the problems caused by the attack, Ukrainians decided to wait patiently for the system to be restored. The government promised that the registers and databases would be available again in two weeks and we really want to believe that is true.
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For most Ukrainians, the war has put plans to buy property on hold, but in almost every family someone is hoping to buy an apartment or sell a big one to buy a couple of smaller ones. At the same time, many military personnel are choosing to spend their increased income on real estate.
In any case, the attack on state property registers would be a very serious incident, but we are also talking about the records of real estate in annexed Crimea and in the occupied territories of the Donbas. The details of property – both private and state – that has been destroyed by the Russian army and Russian bombs are also recorded in these registers.
These databases will be required to calculate the reparations payments that the Russian Federation will one day have to pay for the damage caused to Ukraine. Without an accurate record of such property, the question of reparations may hang in the air for a long time.
According to preliminary estimates, during this war, Russia has destroyed the residential property of three and a half million Ukrainians.
Since last summer, in the Kursk region of Russia, in an attempt to dislodge the Ukrainian expeditionary force, Russia has been targeting homes in its own villages and towns with half-ton bombs.
On social networks, residents of the Kursk region have posted tearful video appeals to President Putin, asking for compensation for lost housing, money to rent other accommodations, and the granting of displaced person or refugee status so that they can receive regular financial assistance. In response, the Russian government has agreed to make a one-off payment of $750 to $1,500 for each destroyed or damaged house or apartment.
It has been announced that certificates will be issued for square meters of new housing, but it is by no means clear how to obtain such certificates or whether they will exist at all. The Russian government simply does not have the funds for this. “Every shell costs money!” the new governor of the region, Alexander Khinshtein, told residents of Kursk region. “The state will not compensate 100% of the costs (for housing restoration).”
Yes, the Russian government needs money to produce missiles and bombs which are used primarily to destroy Ukrainian cities and villages.
Before the New Year, debates over the use of state funds also arose in Ukraine, only with a festive flavor. Some citizens spoke out against the installation of Christmas trees and decorations in city centers. They demanded that local authorities instead transfer all the funds for these expenses to the Ukrainian army and defense industry.
In many large cities, the “pro-Christmas decorations” lobby won. On Kyiv’s Sofiyskaya Square, the tree was rather small and very plastic. However, Kharkiv treated its residents to three luxuriously large trees with photo zones. True, they were all installed underground, where Russian bombs and missiles could not reach – in the “Universitety,” “Nauchnaya,” and “History Museum” Metro stations.
At the “History Museum” station, a St. Nicholas grotto was also opened, and next to it a mailbox for children’s letters with requests and wishes. There were concerts on the platform throughout the Christmas period. Tens of thousands of families went underground to enjoy the celebrations.
While Ukrainian parents were distracting their children from the war with New Year and Christmas treats, a “festive” video was shown on Russian television, in which Russian air defense shoots down a sleigh pulled by six reindeer and carrying Santa Claus across the skies above Moscow.
The video’s catchphrase was: “We don’t need anything foreign in our skies!”
I am sure that you will find similar phrases in the letters to Saint Nicholas written by Ukrainian children this year: “We don’t need anything Russian in our skies.”
Russia, of course, is not only killing Ukrainians, as was demonstrated by the shooting down of the Azerbaijani plane on Christmas Day. The reverberation from that tragedy and from Russia’s cyberattack on Ukraine is still felt now, in the first days of the new year.
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
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