Russia is accused of showing violent images from the Ukraine war on children’s television channels

June 26, 2024

A UN agency is investigating allegations that Russia hacked into Ukrainian television and showed violent images from the time of the country’s invasion on children’s channels, according to a report.

Ukraine and other European countries have complained to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) about alleged interference with satellite reception, affecting navigation services and television broadcasts. The Telegraph reported.

In its June 3 complaint to the ITU, Ukraine recorded at least 11 cases of disruption over the past three months affecting dozens of Ukrainian television programs, the report added. The ITU is a specialized United Nations agency responsible for issues related to information and communications technologies.

The alleged Russian interference affected children’s channels and resulted in images of the bloody invasion of Moscow being shown between regular programs. The hacking attacks disrupted GPS signals and could endanger air traffic control, the EU said in a statement submitted to the ITU earlier this month.

Kyiv officials called on the UN agency to “take all possible measures to stop the Russian Federation’s interventions.” Kyiv’s claims are to be verified by the ITU this week.

Both Russia and Ukraine have attempted to “hack” each other’s television, satellite and internet broadcasts since the invasion in February 2022.

Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court are reportedly investigating alleged Russian cyberattacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure as possible war crimes, four sources familiar with the case said earlier this month.

This is the first confirmation that cyber attacks are being investigated by international prosecutors, which could lead to arrest warrants if sufficient evidence is found.

The investigation is looking into attacks on infrastructure that endangered lives by cutting off power and water supplies, disrupting connections to rescue workers or crippling mobile data services that transmitted airstrike warnings, an official said.

The most recent incident involves hacking from Russian sources on May 9, when Ukrainian and Latvian television broadcasts were interrupted by footage of the Victory Parade in Moscow, forcing Ukrainian providers to switch to an alternative broadcast method.

According to a report in the Ukrainian newspaper Ukrainska Pravda, a similar attempt was made on the Russian broadcast of the parade by “unknown hackers” on the same day.

Russian viewers in Omsk and Irkutsk were shown footage of the terrorist attack on the Crocus town hall near Moscow, in which Russian soldiers in Ukraine, who have already been named, were described as “murderers”.

In July last year, millions of Russians were warned on television that their “hour of reckoning was coming.” The video was reportedly produced by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and showed Kyiv’s military advances. The footage was intercut with a warning text in Ukrainian that read: “The hour of reckoning has come.”

The head of Ukraine’s cyber intelligence agency said in January that Russian hackers had gained access to the system of Ukrainian telecommunications giant Kyivstar in a cyberattack since at least May last year, which should serve as a “major warning” to the West.