Head of the Ukrainian Central Election Commission (CEC) Mykhailo Okhendovsky has predicted that major risks, including cyber threats, will arise not in Russia or the U.S., but in Ukraine itself, the CEC's media liaisons department reported on Monday.

Speaking at an expert round table meeting "Cyber Threats for the Electoral Process in Ukraine" (organized with the support of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems - IFES), Okhendovsky noted that the greatest danger and serious cyber threats to the Ukrainian elections would come not from Russia and the United States, as some believe. In his opinion, the main threats will traditionally appear on Ukrainian territory.

"Unfortunately, no one is able to discredit the Ukrainian elections and undermine public confidence in their results more strongly than Ukrainian politicians," he said.

According to him, it is possible to predict that the situation with cyber threats in the next elections will be similar to the use of "administrative resources."

"It can be predicted that some future headquarters will try to access both the transmission channels and the information that will be used by the election organizers themselves. Perhaps no headquarters will shy away from the possibility of distorting information by spreading fake news and misinformation against other candidates. If the CEC does not directly influence the latter, then excluding the former is one of our priorities," Okhendovsky said.

The next presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine will be held in 2019.