The website of the Russian state media company VGTRK was suddenly down on Monday. The major Russian state news channel, Rossiya-24, also could not be reached.
“503 Service Unavailable. No server is available to handle this request,” read the message that greeted users trying to log in.
Peskov: Unprecedented attack
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later on Monday commented on the technical issues, noting that VGTRK employees were working to resolve the issues.
– Our state media company, which is one of the largest, has suffered an unprecedented hacker attack, Peskov said.
In the work to restore after the attack, one would also search for traces that could lead to the person who carried out the attack. At the same time, a Ukrainian official source told Reuters that Ukraine was behind the attack – which coincided with Vladimir Putin’s birthday.
– Ukrainian hackers congratulated Putin on his birthday by carrying out a large-scale attack against all Russian state-controlled television and radio stations, a source told Reuters.
Sources in Russia state how the internet stopped working at the media company and that several servers, including backup copies, were deleted.
– It will take a long time to remedy, says a source to Reuters.
Ukraine: defused
The hacker attack was not the only setback for Russia. The Ukrainian military intelligence service, GUR, stated on Monday that it had attacked and neutralized a Russian minesweeper in the Baltic Sea.
A video purported to be from inside the ship shows the damage after the Ukrainian attack.
“Now the Russian minesweeper has to undergo an extensive repair, which could turn out to be a big problem,” writes GUR.
The ship Aleksandr Obukhov, is usually in port in the city of Baltiysk in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. According to GUR, the ship was on its way out on a combat mission when it was struck. A leak is said to have caused Obukhov to take water into the engine and a repair is described as both costly and complicated.
The attack is the second in six months when a ship from the Russian Baltic Fleet has been rendered harmless.