On 23 August 2024, the news website Odesa Online was hacked, with the outlet claiming that Russian hackers were responsible, according to the Insitute of Mass Information (IMI), a Ukrainian press freedom group.

Odesa Online’s editor-in-chief Vitalina Puhyr told IMI that hackers edited several publications on the website, replacing them with illustrations containing anti-Ukrainian content.

According to Puhyr, in the first months of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Odesa Online’s website went offline several times due to mass Russian hacker attacks. However, a new, enhanced system of protection was later installed, which helped the outlet avoid similar situations, despite DDoS attacks continuing regularly, as well as attempts to hack the website’s backend.

“Unfortunately, tonight they succeeded, they hacked one of our employees’ accounts and edited several publications, adding pictures with anti-Ukrainian content,” Puhyr told IMI. “They also [added] a link to the Telegram channel of a Russian hacker group engaged in anti-Ukrainian activities.”

Puhyr explained that specialists responded promptly to the situation and quickly restored the website’s correct appearance.

“Currently, the site is working correctly, all publications have been restored. I associate today’s activity of Russian hackers with important dates for our country – the Day of the National Flag of Ukraine and Independence Day,” Puhyr said, in reference to national holidays in Ukraine on 23 and 24 August.