European Parliament victim of a Russian cyberattack after the vote on " terrorism state "

The European Parliament was the subject of a large-scale cyberattack on Wednesday afternoon, just hours after MEPs voted to label Russia a "State promoter of terrorism".

Parliament spokesperson Jaume Duch confirmed that the EU assembly website "is currently affected from the outside due to high levels of external network traffic". He also clarified that this high traffic was caused by a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.

Parliament Speaker Roberta Metsola tweeted that the assembly was currently undergoing "a sophisticated cyberattack" and that "a pro-Kremlin group claimed responsibility".

"Our IT experts are fighting back and protecting our systems. And this, after designating Russia as a promoter of terrorism. My answer: #SlavaUkraini", she added.

The attack rendered the Parliament's website inaccessible for several hours. It came shortly after MEPs backed by a large majority — 494 to 58 with 48 abstentions — a resolution providing for measures to bring before an international tribunal anyone responsible for war crimes committed since the start of the Russian invasion in February.

"The deliberate attacks and atrocities committed by the Russian Federation against the civilian population of Ukraine, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and other serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law constitute acts of terror against the Ukrainian population and war crimes", declared the MEPs.

The resolution is not legally binding for the EU.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged the United States and others to follow the lead of the European Parliament.