Microsoft to help Kyiv document war crimes committed by Russian troops: Ukraine Dy PM

Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov on Tuesday, May 24, announced that Microsoft will help Kyiv in documenting war crimes and damages committed by Russian forces. Taking to his official Twitter handle, Federov said that the US-based software giant will help Ukraine's digital industry during the rebuilding process. The announcement by Mykhailo Federov comes amid the escalating war between Russia and Ukraine which has entered day 88. 

Federov went on to announce that Xbox will officially launch in Ukraine and consoles will now have the Ukrainian language, Ukrinform reported. Mykhailo Fedorov made the announcement after meeting with Microsoft's President, Brad Smith, in Davos, Switzerland. He stressed that Ukraine has been cooperating with Microsoft for a long time and the software developer has been actively supporting the war-torn nation. He noted that the US-based software giant was one of the first companies to suspend sales of products and services in Russia in March, as per the Ukrinform report. Federov further stated that Microsoft has even announced to provide free cloud services to Ukraine until the end of 2022. In March, Microsoft even committed more than $35 million to support humanitarian assistance and relief efforts for Ukraine. 

Microsoft accuses Russia of launching cyberattacks against Ukraine

Earlier on April 27, Microsoft released a report which disclosed that Russian hackers and military strikes worked in "tandem" against a shared target set. According to Microsoft, cyber operations so far have been consistent with actions to disrupt Ukrainian government, military, and economic functions and reduce the access to information for the people of Ukraine. Tom Burt, Corporate Vice President, Customer Security and Trust, in the blog post alleged that "at least six separate Russia-aligned nation-state actors" just before the invasion started to launch over 237 operations against Ukraine. Tom Burt claimed that Russia's use of cyberattacks "appears to be strongly correlated and sometimes directly timed" with the "kinetic" military operations on services and institutions in Ukraine.

"The attacks have not only degraded the systems of institutions in Ukraine but have also sought to disrupt people’s access to reliable information and critical life services on which civilians depend, and have attempted to shake confidence in the country’s leadership," he added. 

(Image: AP)