‘Hacked’ Ukrainian TV Station Transmits Fake Zelensky Surrender Announcement - Forbes

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Topline

TV station Ukraine 24 falsely reported Wednesday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had announced his country would surrender to Russia, in an episode of disinformation the station attributed to “enemy hackers.”

Key Facts

Ukraine 24 and the Ukraine-based Russian-language tabloid Segodnya published an announcement, falsely attributed to Zelensky, that Ukraine was “capitulating” and would “give up arms,” the Daily Mirror reported Wednesday.

Zelensky quickly responded via YouTube, calling the false announcement a “childish provocation” and declaring that Ukraine would not give up arms until it had achieved victory against Russia.

Ukraine 24 Wednesday posted a message on Facebook claiming that the false announcement had been placed by hackers and remarking that Ukraine was unlikely to surrender, “especially in conditions when the Russian army is defeated in battles with the Ukrainian army.”

Russia has not claimed responsibility for the alleged hack.

Key Background

In the weeks leading up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Russian government launched cyberattacks against Ukrainian banking and defense websites, the Council on Foreign Relations, an American think tank, reported. In March, Russian organizations used malware to launch further attacks against Ukrainian Ministry of Defense websites. Triolan, a major Ukrainian internet provider, reported being hacked in February and again March 9, resulting in widespread internet outages. Russia has supplemented these direct cyberwarfare tactics with online disinformation campaigns, spreading conspiracy theories of a supposed U.S. “bioterror lab” discovered in Ukraine and falsely claiming that a Ukrainian maternity hospital bombed by Russia was actually a military center. Though Russian government-backed outlets like RT and Sputnik have been banned by platforms like YouTube in areas including the U.S. and the EU, they continue to operate on Twitter, where they downplay Russian aggression and amplify claims of discord between Ukraine and the West. In February, Twitter announced it would label tweets linking to Russian state-backed media and would limit their reach.

Chief Critic

In reference to the alleged Ukraine 24 hack, U.K. Defence Academy Director-General Edward Stringer told the Daily Mirror Wednesday that Russia had “let loose its most talented and imaginative criminals” and enabled them to “create trouble anywhere in the world.”