VOA investigates accused Russian hacker at center of Ukraine cyber plot

An image of Tim Stigal, left, taken from a REN TV video and a photo of Amin Stigal taken from an FBI wanted poster are added to an image of a legal document. A wanted poster released by the FBI provides the only available photograph of Amin Stigal, the 21-year-old man whom the U.S. government accuses of hacking Ukrainian critical infrastructure and attempting to hack a U.S. agency. Tim Stigal tells Russia's REN TV channel about the anti-drug project “Pharmacies Without Narcotics” in Makhachkala, Dagestan in November 2011, in this image taken from REN TV video.

In January 2022, on the eve of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, hackers broke into the computer networks of Ukrainian state institutions and critical infrastructure.