Ukraine's intelligence service claims to have hacked Russia's aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, to expose the "collapse of the country's aviation sector."
Rosaviatsia is responsible for Russia's civil aviation and maintains a registry of flight accidents and other incidents in air traffic.
According to Finnish newspaper Uusi Suomi, Ukraine concluded from the stolen data that Russia's aviation sector is suffering due to sanctions imposed because of its offensive war, hindering the proper repair of aircraft.
Western sanctions on spare parts and software updates have made it difficult for Russian airlines to operate.
Reuters reports that since last year, Russia has had to dismantle older planes for parts to maintain air traffic. It is exceptional for a state to admit conducting a cyberattack on another state and openly publish the stolen information online.
The leaked data is no longer available on the leak site, but snippets of it can be found in a statement from Ukraine's Ministry of Defense.
Ukraine claims in its statement that in January 2023, there were 185 accidents in Russia's civil aviation, a third of which were serious. The Sukhoi Superjet passenger plane is alleged to have had at least 34 accidents.
The number of malfunctions in Russian airplanes is also said to have tripled from 50 disturbances in the first nine months of 2022 to 150 disturbances in the same period in 2023.
