"Establishing cyberdefense collaboration is essential, particularly considering the increasing risk of threats in cyberspace," Col. Jaak Tarien, director of the CCDCOE, said according to a press release. "We are with Ukraine, and the CCDCOE welcomes the prospect of accepting Ukraine as a new contributing participant in the CCDCOE family."

The guests of honor at Wednesday's flag ceremony were Ukrainian Ambassador to Estonia Mariana Betsa and Ukrainian musician and longtime Estonian resident Ruslan Trochynskyi.

"It is a great pleasure for me to be present at this important event for Ukraine — raising the flag of Ukraine in support of our state, which has been opposing Russia's full-scale war for 49 days, including using cyber tools to achieve its false goals," Betsa said.

"Being a testing ground for the use of cyber tools for malicious purposes, Ukraine has unique practical experience in neutralizing cyberattacks that may be useful to partner countries," she said, adding that Ukraine is continuing to build its own national cybsercurity capacity as well as strengthen and enhance its own legislation.

"We strongly advocate the bringing to justice of those who intentionally organize and carry out cyberattacks," the ambassador continued. "We believe that existing international law applies in cyberspace. We reiterate that the principle of prohibiting one state from attacking others applies here as it does elsewhere. Cyberspace is no different from other domains in which international law is applied to state behavior."

The flag of #Ukraine was raised today next to those @NATO member states at @ccdcoe to welcome on the road to membership. will be a valuable contributor when it wins the war and starts to rebuild. For that we support and #StandWithUkraine️ in every possible way. pic.twitter.com/PMvomIyW5q

— NATO CCDCOE (@ccdcoe) April 13, 2022

Next week, the CCDCOE will be launching Locked Shields, the world's largest and most complex international live-fire cyberdefense exercise. More than 2,000 participants from 32 countries are currently slated to participate, including some team members from Ukraine.

"I hope that, in the nearest future, the flag of Ukraine will fly here at the center not only as a sign of solidarity with Ukraine, but also as a contributing participant of the CCDCOE," the ambassador added.

In early March, 27 sponsoring countries of the CCDCOE voted unanimously to accept Ukraine into the organization as a contributing participant.

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