Kremlin Website Goes Down

The news comes amid a special operation conducted by Russian forces in Ukraine. It was ordered earlier on Thursday by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said that its aim is to protect the residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.

The official website of the president of Russia has gone down. Reports say other government websites, such as the Russian parliament’s one, have gone offline too. The Kremlin’s website, as well as the website of Russia’s Security Council, went down as a result of cyber-attacks, a source told Sputnik, adding that Presidential Office on Security Information is dealing with the problem.

The source said that the cyber-attacks could be associated with US activity regarding the situation in Ukraine.

Last week, the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry went down amid the standoff between Russia and the West over security demands that Moscow issued to the United States and its allies in December.

The demands include a formal veto on Ukraine joining NATO, a limit on the deployment of weapons and troops on the alliance's eastern flank, refusal to deploy strike weapons systems near Russia's borders, as well as a return of NATO forces to where they were stationed before the so-called eastern expansion in 1997. NATO has since rejected a number of Moscow's demands.

The latest development comes amid a special operation conducted by Russia in Ukraine. It was ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier on Thursday. The Russian head of state said he made the decision after the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, two breakaway regions that announced their independence from Ukraine in 2014, asked Moscow for help.

Earlier this month, the LPR and DPR said that Kiev had shelled their territories, prompting the republics to order the evacuation of the civilian population to Russia.

On 21 February, President Putin recognised the independence of the LPR and DPR, and in a televised address to the Russian population on Thursday, he announced a special operation aimed at protecting the resident of the two republics from the genocide that had been waged on them by the Ukrainian authorities.

"To this end, we will seek to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine, as well as bring to trial those who perpetrated numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including against citizens of the Russian Federation", President Putin said.

The Russian head of state emphasised that the special operation is not aimed at occupying Ukraine, as Russia’s authorities “do not intend to impose anything on anyone by force”.

His statement was echoed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who said that the goal of the operation is to ensure the security of the Russian people. The ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the ongoing situation is not the beginning of a war, but the “prevention of a situation that could lead to global military confrontation".