This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

German government websites, including Angela Merkel’s page, have been hacked in a cyber-attack claimed by a group demanding that Berlin sever official ties with the Ukrainian government.

The attack, against which counter-measures were taken, had left the sites periodically inaccessible since 10am (09.00 GMT) on Wednesday, Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said.

“Our service provider’s data centre is under a severe attack that has apparently been caused by a variety of external systems,” he told a news conference when asked if Ukrainian hackers were responsible.

In a statement on its website, a group calling itself CyberBerkut took responsibility.

Berkut is a reference to the riot squads used by the government of Ukraine’s former pro-Kremiln president Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted during violent protests last February.

“CyberBerkut has blocked German Chancellor and the Bundestag’s (lower parliamentary house) websites,” it said on www.cyber-berkut.org.

The claim could not be independently verified.

“We appeal [to] all people and [the] government of Germany to stop financial and political support of criminal regime in Kiev, which unleashed a bloody civil war,” it said.

Ukraine’s prime minister, Arseny Yatseniuk, is due to meet the German president, Joachim Gauck, in Berlin later on Wednesday.