MOSCOW: The Kremlin denied Thursday it was behind cyberattacks that hit supermarket fridges across Europe this week, calling the allegations against Moscow “absurd.”

Grocery stores in at least nine European countries saw fridge temperatures soar, forcing retailers to discard hundreds of millions of dollars of food. The European Union warned of a deliberate attempt to disrupt the continent’s food supplies.

European countries have in recent months warned of increased Russian sabotage activity as Moscow’s war against Ukraine drags on for almost five years.

“These are absurd statements and they, as always, have no argumentation or proof behind them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to Russian state media.

“These baseless accusations against our country, implicating it in everything — well, unfortunately, this is becoming something of a persistent trend in European countries. I would like to emphasize once again that this is an utterly absurd accusation,” he added.

Supermarkets in Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden reported refrigeration problems this week. France suffered a major attack last month.

Western countries have accused Russia of regular cyberattacks, a trend that has increased since Moscow launched its full-scale offensive against Ukraine in 2022. Russia consistently denies the accusations.