Russian newspaper blames hackers after Ukraine war ‘death toll’ is posted online

Earlier this month, Ukraine’s military command alleged that over 11,000 Russian troops had been killed

(SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images)

A Russian newspaper has claimed that hackers posted fake news on their platform after reporting that nearly 10,000 soldiers had been killed in Ukraine.

The article, published by Komsomolskaya Pravda, stated that 9,861 Russian servicemen have been killed and 16,153 had been wounded, Reuters reports.

Today, that article had been removed and replaced with a message: "On March 21, access to the administrator interface was hacked on the Komsomolskaya Pravda website and a fake insert was made in this publication about the situation around the special operation in Ukraine. The inaccurate information was immediately removed."

Russia claims that only 498 servicemen have been killed in its ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine, and 1,597 wounded.

Earlier this month, Ukraine’s military command alleged that over 11,000 Russian troops had been killed.

It added that the Russian forces have suffered the loss of 2,000 units of enemy weapons and military equipment, including 285 tanks, 44 aircraft and 48 helicopters.

It has not been possible to independently verify this claim, but Komsomsolskya Pravda has supported Vladimir Putin’s claim that Russia has attempting to demilitarise and "denazify" Ukraine, something which Ukraine and Western governments have claimed is not true.

Russia has received numerous cyberattacks over the weeks since 24 February.

The hacking group Anonymous claimed that it took control of unsecured printers across the country to spread “anti-propaganda” about Ukraine, and has previously claimed attacks on television stations to spread footage about the war.

It comes as Russia has clamped down on independent media, banning Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram from the country as well as publications such as the BBC.

Recently, a Russian protestor thought to be Channel One editor Marina Ovsyannikova burst onto a nightly newscast with a sign that read: “Stop the war. Don’t believe propaganda. They’re lying to you”.

In a video recorded before her protest, she said that Russia was an “aggressor” and that the “whole world has turned away from us, and ten generations of our descendants won’t wash off this fratricidal war."