June 08, 2023

Screen Siege


Screen Siege
Önder Örtel, Unsplash.

TV channels in Crimea were hacked, leading them to play a video message from the Ukrainian military to local viewers.

The video featured several Ukrainian military personnel, looking straight into the camera and holding a finger to their lips, calling for silence. The SOTA project reported the hack and posted a seven-second clip to Telegram, quoting Oleg Kryuchkov, an advisor to the Head of Crimea and spokesperson for the Russian occupation authority, that “Presumably, Ukrainian hackers hacked a number of Crimean cable channels.” 

The enigmatic video has fueled speculation among viewers, with many interpreting it as a reference to the forthcoming Ukrainian counteroffensive. One resident from Simferopol said that one of the broadcasts “shows that there will be no announcement of the start [of the counteroffensive.]”

On Telegram, Kryuchkov continued, “The signal is being cut off. Broadcast television - all multiplexes – are operating as usual.”

This was not the first instance of broadcast hacking in this war, on either side.

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