The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has called on all member countries to ensure the safety of their citizens living in Ukraine.

A statement issued by the ECOWAS Commission and copied to the Ghanaian Times said the ECOWAS was following with great concern the military invasion of the Republic of Ukraine by Russia, which has led to human casualties, particularly among civilians.

“ECOWAS strongly condemns this action and calls for both parties to stop the fighting and use dialogue to solve their differences in the interest of peace in this region,” the statement added.

After weeks of escalations between Russia, the United States and Western Europe, the volatile situation in Ukraine seems to have reached a stalemate, with Russia indicating they would begin withdrawing troops from the contested border.

However, while the conflict begins to cool in the real world, the online battle rages on and does not look to end soon.

The Russian threat of a full-throttle invasion of Ukraine is the latest step in a series of aggressive actions taken by Russian President, Vladimir Putin, to expand that country’s influence, territory and reclaim the former Soviet state.

Besides sending more troops to the Ukrainian border, Russia is beefing up efforts on the cyber front.

Well-established tactics such as utilising bots (a software application that runs automated tasks over the internet) on social media to sow discord and increase political polarisation remains part of the country’s modus operandai, threatening not only elections but also disrupting commerce online. Russia mystifies its involvement with hacker groups, thereby shifting blame.