Program hijacked

Hackers showed Putin’s parade on Ukrainian TV

The military parade in Moscow on the occasion of "Victory Day" over Nazi Germany on May 9.(Bild: APA/AFP/POOL/Maksim BLINOV)

Several Ukrainian and Latvian TV stations have broadcast parts of the military parade from Red Square in Moscow following a hacker attack. In Ukraine, the media groups Star Light Media and Inter, public TV and the channels Dym and Apostroph-TV were affected, wrote the media portal "Detektor Media" on Thursday.

In Latvia, the internet and TV operator Balticom was affected, according to the head of the media regulator, Ivars Abolins.

Attack began just in time for the parade
According to the report, the first hacker attack against Ukrainian media began right at the start of the military parade. According to the authorities in Kiev, the satellite signal was disrupted and the broadcasters switched to a different type of transmission after a short time. However, there were further hacker attacks from Russia during the course of the day.

The authorities launched an investigation. Ukraine, which Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin has been waging a war of aggression against for more than two years, has banned the broadcasting of Russian programs.

The authorities are also investigating in Latvia. According to initial findings, the hackers did not attack Balticom's broadcasting infrastructure, but a foreign partner company of the company, which is responsible for the content that Balticom broadcasts.