Europe Letter: ‘It’s going to unite us further’ - hackers harden European Parliament

When Europe’s Green MEPs gathered to discuss a resolution to declare Russia a “state sponsor of terrorism” on the eve of the vote, they found themselves divided.

The question of military support for Ukraine and some of the European Parliament’s more strident declarations have long caused qualms for some Green MEPs with strong associations with the environmental movement’s pacifist tradition.

Declaring Russia to be a “state sponsor of terrorism” is purely symbolic. The European Union has no such legal instrument. It’s a concept from the United States, which subjects such states to trade and financial restrictions.

When the Greens met, it was MEPs from the countries closest to Russia that pushed back against colleagues who were wavering over whether a new hawkish resolution was required.

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“Members from eastern European countries, they were the ones really explaining to us about the importance of that solidarity, and holding fast to that solidarity, at this very time when there is this sustained, violent attack against the whole infrastructure in Ukraine,” Irish Green MEP Grace O’Sullivan told The Irish Times.

“You might think it’s an army against an army. It’s not. It’s a violent attack on the Ukrainian people.”

[ EU plans to confiscate assets of Russian sanctions evaders to give to Ukraine ]

In the end, O’Sullivan voted in favour of the resolution, along with fellow Irish Green Ciarán Cuffe and most of their group colleagues. She sent out a press release welcoming the result, while stating that ultimately “concrete measures” such as financial support and humanitarian aid are more important.

Yet others were watching – and it mattered to them.

Shortly after the motion passed, the Telegram channel of the pro-Kremlin Russian hacker collective Killnet took a break from its usual gloating about missile attacks on Ukraine and the destruction of its energy and water supplies.

It informed its followers that the European Parliament had just voted to describe Russia as a state that uses “means of terrorism” and had called for its “international isolation”.

The follow-up came 90 minutes later. The channel posted evidence that the parliament’s website could no longer be accessed, along with a trolling message laced with homophobia that took credit for the “shelling of the server”.

In Strasbourg, the effect was described as “chaos”.

With the parliament site down, MEPs struggled to access the text of resolutions and amendments through their usual internal system. They could no longer submit translations of their contributions to parliamentary debates, request explanations of votes or register lobbying meetings, staff said.

Proceedings went “old school”, with stacks of paper changing hands and being distributed among the hundreds of MEPs’ offices.

One major practical inconvenience was the disappearance of the real-time tracker that allows MEPs and their staff to monitor when they are due to speak in the parliament chamber.

Staff were dispatched to the hemicycle to monitor its screen in person; there was no longer any forewarning about “catch-the-eye” opportunities, when MEPs are invited to contribute at the end of debates.

With party groups due to gather to debate and determine how they would cast their ballots in Thursday’s voting sessions, MEPs were unable to download and read the amendments they needed to consider.

Fianna Fáil MEP Billy Kelleher played it all down.

“It was a small inconvenience,” he told The Irish Times. Meanwhile in Ukraine “the systematic destruction of the electricity infrastructure ... is taking out power supply to hospitals, operations being cancelled, people on operating tables when power cuts happen,” he said. “That’s the real issue.”

Kelleher had spent the days before the vote gathering signatures for his own, related initiative: a letter to European national leaders demanding they designate the Wagner Group as a terrorist organisation. The letter describes the mercenaries as a private army of Vladimir Putin that has been used to destabilise regions from Syria to Central African Republic.

“They are a paramilitary wing of Russian diplomacy. There’s no point in us pretending otherwise. And they have been involved in appalling atrocities,” he explained. “Mali, Central African Republic, Madagascar – right across African countries, but particularly in Syria.”

The cyberattack on the parliament was a reminder, he said, that “we may not be a target for missiles and artillery” but “from an Irish perspective, we’re not immune”.

O’Sullivan described the day’s events in emphatic terms. “It’s an attack on democracy in Europe,” she said. “This is an attack on our ability to perform our duties, on the democratic system, no doubt about it.”

Not that it would be effective.

“Often things like this are counterproductive,” she reflected. “If anything, it’s going to unite us further.”