The European Union’s foreign policy chief has warned Russia against carrying out “malicious cyber activities” on the eve of elections in Germany that Berlin fears are being targeted by Kremlin-backed hackers.

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       Hackers have tried to steal data and access the personal accounts of government officials, politicians, journalists, and activists, Josep Borrell said in a Friday statement, calling the efforts attempts to “undermine our democratic institutions and processes.” He linked the attacks to the Ghostwriter hacking group, which German officials have said is associated with Russian military intelligence service GRU.

       Borrell did not say which of the bloc’s members had been attacked. But Germans will go to the polls on Sunday to pick a new leader to replace outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel. Berlin has previously expressed concern that Russia could try to undermine German democracy or sway public opinion toward Moscow-friendly candidates, possibly by releasing disinformation or sensitive communications they had obtained through cyberattacks.

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       Russia has a keen interest in the results of Sunday’s polls. The foreign policy of Germany, Europe’s richest country and a member of NATO has ripple effects on relations between Russia and the West. Under Merkel, Germany’s relationship with Russia has, at times, been strained and antagonistic. But she has tried to separate Moscow’s expansionism and poor human rights record from issues of trade and economics.

       By contrast, Germany’s next government could contain members that advocate a firmer stance. While the center-left Social Democrats and Merkel’s center-right Christian Democrats are neck-and-neck in opinion polling, the Green Party, which is also likely to play some role in the next government, has pledged to increase political pressure on Russia if it takes office. The Greens were targeted by a vicious social media campaign this year that a senior party official told the Guardian newspaper was orchestrated by the Kremlin.

       The Russian mission to the European Union did not immediately return a request for comment. Moscow has repeatedly denied Western allegations of election interference, saying it never has, and never will interfere in foreign elections.

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       Borrell’s remarks came on the same day the German interior ministry reported a cyber attack on a government office tasked with overseeing the weekend election, the Associated Press reported.

       “As far as we can tell at the moment, the internal election server wasn’t affected by this attack and as such there is no threat to the conduct of the federal election,” an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

       In July, the head of Germany’s domestic intelligence service warned that the upcoming elections were a “significant” target for foreign espionage agencies that wanted to influence the results. Thomas Haldenwang, the head of the service, said that there had been an increase in attacks on the email accounts of German legislators and their staff, though it appeared that little harm had been caused.

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       Russia and the Ghostwriter group also appeared to be behind at least some of those campaigns, European officials said.

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       Alongside attempts to obtain private information, Ghostwriter has sought to distribute disinformation via falsified news articles and op-eds to sow distrust in Eastern Europe against the United States and Western Europe, according FireEye, a major U.S. cybersecurity firm.

       FireEye researchers said there was evidence Ghostwriter hackers had created false personas with Baltic or English-sounding names, which then published disinformation. In one instance, hackers fabricated an interview transcript that falsely showed a senior U.S. Army general criticizing Polish and Baltic allies.

       In another, a fake letter purporting to be from the NATO Secretary General that announced the alliance was withdrawing from Lithuania because of the coronavirus pandemic was published on a blog that falsely claimed to be authored by a local journalist, researchers said.

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