After last year’s denial of the formal membership to the North Atlantic Alliance’s (NATO) cooperative cyber centre of excellence (CCDOE), the Ukrainian government officials announced that they still want a closer collaboration.
However, the request and subsequent rejection come at a time when Ukraine is dealing with potential Russian cyber-attacks that are believed to be accompanied by a large-scale invasion. For its part, Russia has denied having such intentions. However, it has refused to move back its 100,000 plus troops from the border unless NATO assures its counterpart that Ukraine will be cut off from possible future membership of the Alliance.
A key collaborator on cyber defence matters for Kyiv is Estonia, which hosts the CCDCOE in the capital Tallinn. Estonians have worked to facilitate ties between the Alliance and Kyiv even outside of centre channels, with experts from both countries meeting amid the growing crisis.
“Estonia is ready to send cyber specialists to Ukraine to further develop this exchange. By supporting Ukraine, we are also strengthening our own defence posture.”, affirmed Margus Matt, undersecretary of cyber matters at the Estonian ministry.
Even though Deputy Secretary-General Mircea Geoana stated that the Alliance had been working with Ukraine “for years to increase its cyber defences and will continue to do so at pace”, this support has to translate into granting Ukraine a formal role in the cyber centre, possible for non-alliance countries through the “contributing participant” role. Contributing participants are already Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, and Finland.
According to Natalia Tkachuk, chief of the Information Security Office at the National Security and Defence Council, affiliation with NATO centre would constitute “another important step” in Kyiv’s aspirations to become a member of the Western Alliance. It would “provide Ukraine with the opportunity to exchange experience in detecting and countering modern cyber threats, developing skills in joint response to cyber-attacks and conducting defence and deterrence operations in cyberspace”.
However, at the moment, there is no consensus on the membership of Ukraine to CCDCOE, although “this is not the end state” with “CCDCOE member nations actively seeking to build the necessary consensus in the near future”, the centre’s director Jaak Tarien declared. He added that “right now the CCDCOE is mapping out new possible cooperation areas with Ukraine, since Ukraine has unique experience in combating hybrid threats. Sharing it will help improve both the knowledge and readiness to face such threats in each Member State of CCDCOE individually and in NATO as a whole”.
Written by Gabriela Corina Tanasa
Bibliography:
Sebastian Sprenger, “Ukraine seeks closer ties with NATO on cyber defense,” DefenseNews, February 1, 2022, [online]. Available at: https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2022/02/01/ukraine-seeks-closer-ties-with-nato-on-cyber-defense/.
