Does Russia have an unwillingness to reduce tension with Ukraine?
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Kiev, Ukraine (CNN) --
Several Ukrainian government websites are currently down due to "a massive cyberattack" with threatening text warning Ukrainians to "be afraid and expect the worst" and alleging that their personal information has been pirated.
"As a result of a massive cyberattack, the websites of the Foreign Ministry and other government agencies are temporarily down," Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said on his official Twitter account on Friday.
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"Our specialists have already started to restore the functioning of IT systems and the cyber police opened an investigation," he added.
A laptop screen displays a warning message in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish that appeared on the official website of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.
Early Friday morning local time, Ukrainian government websites, including that of the Foreign Ministry, displayed dark screens with threatening text saying that Ukrainians' personal information had been hacked.
"Ukrainian! All your personal data has been uploaded to the public network. All data on the computer is destroyed, it is impossible to restore it," read the message, posted in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish.
"All information about you has been made public, be afraid and expect the worst. This is for you for your past, present and future. For Volhynia, for the OUN UIA [Ukrainian Insurgent Army Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists], for Galicia, for Polesia and for the historic lands," the website said.
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Ukraine's Ministry of Education and Science, whose official website is also down, instructed citizens to use the ministry's official social media channels on Friday while the issue is resolved.
Katharina Krebs reported from Kiev and Jake Kwon reported from Seoul.
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