Anthropic says it thwarted Russian espionage campaign targeting Kyiv
US artificial intelligence company Anthropic has reported detecting and shutting down a Russian intelligence operation targeting Kyiv that was automated through its Claude chatbot.
Anthropic, a US-based artificial intelligence company, has announced that it detected and shut down a Russian espionage campaign directed at Ukraine's capital, Kyiv.
The company said the operation had been automated using its own AI chatbot, Claude, suggesting that the attackers used the tool to streamline or accelerate intelligence-gathering activities against the Ukrainian capital.
Anthropic is among the world's leading AI developers, and its Claude chatbot is widely used for both commercial and research purposes. The company regularly monitors its platform for misuse, and this case indicates that AI tools are increasingly being drawn into cyber-espionage and hybrid warfare linked to the war in Ukraine.
News of the uncovered campaign emerged as part of a broader roundup on the Russo-Ukrainian war, which focused primarily on statements by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy regarding potential conditions for an energy truce. Zelenskyy stressed that Ukraine would only agree to a halt in strikes on energy infrastructure if Western partners provide guarantees that Moscow will not break the agreement after upcoming elections.
Anthropic has not disclosed further details about the scale of the espionage campaign, its specific targets, or how long it had been running before being detected. The case nonetheless adds to a growing number of reports about attempts to misuse commercial AI tools for malicious purposes, including cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns connected to the war in Ukraine.
