On 28 March 2024, unknown sources conducted a cyber attack on several TV channels part of 1+1, a private Ukrainian media holding, as well as several other channels partnering with the media holding. The information was confirmed by the press service of 1+1, as well as the Center for Strategic Communications, a Ukrainian government institution dependent on the country’s Ministry of Culture and Information Policy. The attack began at 9.30 a.m. local time, with normal broadcasting returned at around 11 a.m. It affected the following channels: 1+1 Ukraine, 1+1 Marathon, TET, PLUSPLUS, Bigudi, 2+2, UNIAN and others. Instead of seeing United News, a common news program broadcast by Ukraine’s main TV channels as part of a united wartime information policy, as well as other programs, viewers could for some time watch pro-Russian propaganda.
In a statement, 1+1 said that Russia had begun “actively jamming” its broadcasts on two selected satellite services, Astrabird4A and Hotbird13E, and that this would likely “not be the last attempt by the Russian Federation to silence the content of Ukrainian TV channels in order to disorient society and spread hostile narratives, especially in the territories bordering the temporarily occupied cities and villages”.
In a separate statement published on Telegram, Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communications said that Russia was “conducting all these actions to destabilize the situation in Ukraine”.