A new front in the information war
For four years, Ukraine’s media has operated under fire — literally. Now, the threats are multiplying in cyberspace. The country’s domestic security agency, the SBU, issued a stark warning: Ukrainian media outlets have become “one of the priority targets” for Russian hackers.
The shift is not subtle. Hackers linked to Russia are no longer just going after government databases or energy grids. They are going after the news. And they are doing it with a mix of digital assaults and old-fashioned propaganda, all while Russian missiles keep hitting actual newsrooms.
Volodymyr Karastelyov, head of the SBU’s cyber department, detailed two previously unreported attacks on Ukrainian television broadcasters. He stopped short of naming specific Russian groups, but the pattern is clear: disrupt the signal, break the trust, and sow chaos.
DDoS attack on a national TV channel
Earlier this year, an unnamed nationwide television channel came under a massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. The assault lasted three hours. At its peak, the botnet — a network of hijacked devices — was hitting the broadcaster with up to 200,000 requests per minute.
The goal was simple: knock the channel offline. It failed. Karastelyov said the attack was repelled before it could achieve its objective. But the scale alone is a warning. This was not a small operation. It was a coordinated attempt to silence a major outlet in real time, during a war where every minute of coverage matters.
Phishing and platform takeover attempts
Another incident, which occurred last year, was even more insidious. Russian hackers targeted one of Ukraine’s leading television groups. They did not just want to crash the system. They wanted to own it.
According to the SBU, the attackers launched a phishing campaign against the broadcaster’s information systems. At the same time, they tried to slip in through connected infrastructure — a classic multi-vector approach. Their aim: seize control of the platform and publish propaganda disguised as legitimate Ukrainian content.
That attack was also contained. But the fact that it happened at all underscores a troubling reality. Hackers are not just trying to break things. They are trying to hijack the narrative.
Over 200 successful cyberattacks on media since the invasion
These two incidents are just the tip of the iceberg. Ukraine’s State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection (SSSCIP) reported last year that Russian hackers had carried out more than 200 successful cyberattacks against Ukrainian media organizations since the full-scale invasion began.
The tactics are varied and brutal:
- Phishing campaigns targeting journalists and editors
- DDoS attacks to knock sites and broadcasts offline
- Website defacements to spread disinformation
- Destructive malware that wipes data and cripples systems
- Unauthorized publication of fake stories on compromised platforms
The SBU itself says it has “neutralized” more than 16,000 cyberattacks and cyber incidents since Russia’s full-scale invasion four years ago. Those targets include government agencies, financial institutions, defense organizations — and, increasingly, media outlets.
Physical strikes on newsrooms continue
The cyberwar is not happening in a vacuum. Ukrainian media organizations have also sustained repeated physical damage from Russian missile and drone strikes. In fact, the two forms of attack often complement each other: cripple the digital infrastructure, then hit the physical one.
The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine documented 80 incidents in the first half of this year alone. These include destroyed or damaged editorial offices, wrecked broadcasting infrastructure, and journalists coming under fire while reporting.
This week, the office of Ukraine’s Channel 5 was damaged for the second time during the war. A strike on Monday hit the television studio, destroying part of the station’s filming equipment and heavily damaging the newsroom. The attack came as Russia launched 68 missiles and nearly 400 drones at Ukraine in a single night.
The message is unmistakable: Ukrainian media is under siege from every direction. The hackers try to silence them online. The missiles try to silence them on the ground. So far, neither has succeeded.
