NATO is trying to surround Russia with a network of cyber laboratories as part of its hybrid war against the country, the Special Representative of the Russian President for International Cooperation in the Field of Information Security, Artur Lyukmanov, has said.

The US-led bloc has long been working on developing ways to take on Russia in the infosphere, Lyukmanov said in an interview with RIA-Novosti on Saturday.

Ukraine has been its “main testing ground,” with hackers from the country “carrying out acts of electronic sabotage under the close guidance of the curators from NATO,” he said.

Russia is aware of “entire units of Western intelligence services and armed forces being sent to Kiev” to assist the Ukrainians with hacking activities, the diplomat, who also heads the Department of International Information Security at Russia’s Foreign Ministry, added.

“It’s no secret that the alliance is forming a whole network of cyber laboratories along the Russian borders – in Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Romania,” Lyukmanov pointed out.

According to the diplomat, in the future NATO also plans to open such facilities in Georgia and Moldova, who are not members of the bloc.

“Under the auspices of the Pentagon, cyber exercises are being carried out systematically, during which scenarios of confrontation with [Russia] in the digital realm are being tested,” he said.

Earlier this month, the US Cyber Command staged the Cyber Flag 2024 exercise, at a base in Suffolk, Virginia. The drills involved American cyber operators and their counterparts from 18 NATO members and partner states, who trained to detect cyber threats and identify solutions to protect networks.

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that a state-run data protection system should be set up as the number of cyberattacks on the country has been on the rise since the outbreak of the Ukrainian conflict.

“Today we can already say that the cyber aggression against us… failed. In general, we were ready for this attack, and this is the result of the systematic work that has been carried out in the field in recent years,” Putin said.