KIEV, June 27 – Ukraine on Tuesday was hit by a massive cyberattack that affected government computers, banks, airports, subways, businesses and electrical utilities, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said.

The attack is the largest breach of Ukrainian computer networks ever recorded and was apparently caused by a ransomware virus called Petya, a short version of the name Petro.

The name indicates the virus developers appear to be of Slavic background and perhaps may have tried to poke at President Petro Poroshenko.

Oleksandr Turchynov, the secretary of Ukraine's Security and Defense Council, said there were signs of Russian involvement in the cyberattack.

Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, said the virus was a version of Wannacry, which hit global computers earlier this year.

"The ultimate goal of the cyberattack was to try to destabilize," he wrote on Facebook, adding that the attacks probably originated in Russia.

Although Ukraine was hit by the attack the hardest, the virus has eventually spread to affect some companies in other countries, officials said.

WannaCry is a virus that shut down more than 200,000 computers in some 150 countries in May, demanding that the computer users pay hundreds of dollars to regain use of their computer and not lose their data.

Pavlo Rozenko, Deputy Prime Minister, said Tuesday that every computer monitor in the cabinet of ministers was locked and displayed a message in English warning users that if they shut down their computers all of their data will be deleted.

Rozenko said on Twitter that "the entire network is down in the government's secretariat.”

The Ukrainian central bank said a number of Ukrainian banks were also affected by the attack.

"As a result of these cyberattacks these banks are having difficulties with client services and carrying out banking operations," NBU said in a statement, without naming any of the banks affected.

"The central bank is confident that the banking infrastructure's defense against cyberfraud is properly set up and attempted cyberattacks on banks' IT systems will be neutralized," the statement added.

Meanwhile, a growing list of international companies based in the United States, the Netherlands, Germany, Britain, Denmark, Norway, France, and India also reported being affected by similar cyberattacks.

Ukrenergo, the power grid, said its IT system was hit by the cyberattack, but had never disrupted power supplies.

Several local power distributors also experienced disruptions due to the cyberattack, including Kyivenergo, Dniproenergo, and Zaporizhiaenergo, Interfax-Ukraine reported. (nr/ez)