Canada joins allies in condemning 'malicious' Russian cyberattacks

And in a chilling note, one of the officers, Wilson added, had "also conducted malign activity in Malaysia", in an operation that targeted the inquiry into Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, the airliner that crashed in eastern Ukraine after being hit by a missile.

The foreign office set out six cyber attacks spanning from 2015 until a year ago.

"The vivid imagination of our colleagues from the United Kingdom has no boundaries indeed [.] it's undignified for the country, which pretends to play one of the leading roles in the world", she said.

All 298 passengers and crew - most of whom were Dutch - were killed when the jet crashed in an area held by Russia-backed separatists.

The Dutch government said it had summoned the Russian ambassador over the incident.

European Union officials said in a statement Russia's "aggressive act demonstrated contempt for the solemn purpose" of the OPCW.

"That's how you make the world safer - when we act together to call out this sort of behaviour". Given the high confidence assessment and the broader context, the United Kingdom government has made the judgement that the Russian government - the Kremlin - was responsible.

The watchdog at the time was looking into the attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal in Britain and Western reports of chemical weapons being used by Russia's ally, Syria, against internal opponents.

The Russians were tracked from their arrival in Amsterdam on diplomatic passports in April, and then seen hiring a Citroen auto which they parked outside the Marriott hotel next to the OPCW.

In a joint statement, UK Prime Minister Theresa May and Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte condemned the "unacceptable cyber activities" of the GRU.

Moscow has denied the allegations, with Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissing the new accusations as "big fantasies" and a "diabolical perfume cocktail" of allegations by someone with a "rich imagination".

The US Department of Justice charged seven Russian GRU agents on Thursday with computer hacking, wire fraud, identity theft and money laundering.

Assistant attorney general John Demers said three of those charged had already been indicted by special prosecutor Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Dutch Minister of Defence Ank Bijleveld speaks during a news conference in The Hague, Netherlands, October 4, 2018.

Speaking about Russia's hacking attempts into the MH17 crash investigation, she said: "We have been aware of the interest of Russian intelligence services in this investigation and have taken appropriate measures".

"They were trying to commit a close access hack operation", he said.

On April 13 they parked a vehicle carrying specialist hacking equipment outside the headquarters of the OPCW in the The Hague.

"The incidents identified by Canada and our allies, including the GRU's attempt to undermine the work of the OPCW, underscore the Russian government's disregard for the rules-based worldwide order, global law and established norms", the statement said. Some of their mobile phones were also activated in Moscow near the agency's headquarters.

Investigations found the Russians had originally taken a taxi from GRU barracks in Moscow to the airport, for which Dutch agents later found a receipt from their hotel.

They were named in them as Alekski Morenets and Evgenii Serebriakov, described as a cyber operators, and Oleg Soktnikov and Alexey Minin, who were said to have provided "humint (human intelligence) support".

Nato Secretary general Jens Stoltenberg also added that the alliance stood "in solidarity" with the decision by the Dutch and British governments to "call out" Russian Federation for its actions.