Politico called the reason for US consideration of new sanctions against Russia

The US Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs is considering imposing new sanctions on Russia for Moscow's cyberattacks against Ukraine. This is reported by Politico, citing senior members of the Senate.

According to the publication, some senators are pushing for the inclusion of sanctions for cyber attacks in a broader bill to take action against Russia in the event of an invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that "if the sanctions were applied before the invasion, they would be associated with Russian cyber attacks inside Ukraine."

The head of the Republicans on the committee, Senator Jim Rish of Idaho, told the publication that "there were such conversations," but he would like to keep cybersecurity aspects confidential in the upcoming package of sanctions.

In mid-January, unknown hackers attacked at least 70 state websites of Ukraine, including the portals of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Sports, and other departments. They appeared appeal in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish, the authors of which called on Ukrainian citizens "to be afraid and expect the worst." In Ukraine, they believe that Russia was involved in the incident . The United States said that the attack was carried out "according to the Russian scheme."