VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Hacker groups linked to Russian intelligence conducted cyber-attacks against top Lithuanian officials and decision-makers last year and used the Baltic nation’s technology infrastructure as a base to hit targets elsewhere, a report by Lithuania’s intelligence service said Thursday.

The annual national security threat assessment report claimed that, among others, the Russian cyber-espionage group APT29 with alleged links to Russia’s intelligence services “exploited” Lithuania’s information technology infrastructure “to carry out attacks by APT29 against foreign entities developing a COVID-19 vaccine.”

The report produced by Lithuania’s State Security Department said the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown in Lithuania, a NATO member that is Russia’s neighbor and a former Soviet republic, decreased Russian intelligence operations against the country in 2020 and shifted the Kremlin’s efforts to cyber-espionage.