China launched cyber-attacks on Ukrainian military and nuclear targets shortly before the Russian invasion, according to a report.

The UK government confirmed that the National Cyber Security Centre was investigating the allegations, which claim that more than 600 websites, including Ukraine’s defence ministry, were subjected to thousands of hacking attempts coordinated by the Chinese government…

Jamie MacColl, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, said the reported attempts appeared to fit a Chinese tactic of scanning for vulnerabilities in IT infrastructure, such as firewalls and virtual private networks.

“This sounds relatively routine to me, if true. Some Chinese groups have been retasked to collect intelligence on the Ukraine conflict. Security agencies collect information to inform policy. And that is what appears to have happened in this case.”