Ukraine’s media are top Russian cyber target: Hackers hit Ukrainian TV site with 200,000 requests in minute

Ukrainian media are one of Russia’s priority cyber targets. The Security Service Cyber Security Department has reported that it has neutralized more than 16,000 Russian cyberattacks since Russia’s full-scale war. 

Ukrainian state agencies, financial institutions, the defense sector, and Ukrainian media have also been among the top targets, Cyber Security Department head Brigadier General Volodymyr Karastelov says.

In the media-targeting subset that the SBU highlighted, Russian attempts have ranged from denial-of-service attacks aimed at knocking outlets offline to phishing-and-lateral-movement campaigns aimed at seizing Ukrainian TV groups outright to distribute Russian propaganda under their names.

200,000 requests per minute against Ukrainian TV 

In one of the largest attacks of the year, Russian hackers ran a three-hour DDoS attack against the website of a national Ukrainian television channel. The botnet generated up to 200,000 requests per minute from nodes distributed across Asia, Europe, and the US, mimicking real-user activity to overload servers and take resources offline.

SBU cyber specialists kept the site operational without disruption.

In 2025, another Ukrainian TV group was targeted in a two-stage attack: an initial phishing campaign followed by an attempt to penetrate the information infrastructure via adjacent systems.

The goal was to seize control of the resource and distribute propaganda under the outlet’s name. SBU specialists detected the intrusion in time and prevented the takeover.

21-oblast training program with Ukraine’s media council 

To strengthen Ukrainian newsroom defenses against these attacks, the SBU is running a cyber-resilience project for local and regional media in partnership with Ukraine’s National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting. 

Under the program, the SBU held a series of practical cybersecurity training sessions at 20 regional venues in 2026, covering media representatives from all 21 oblasts of Ukraine. Nearly 450 participants took part — media managers, journalists, editors, and technical specialists.

Russia’s broader Ukraine cyber campaign, from WhisperGate to registries to routers

Russia’s cyber operations against Ukraine have been documented across sectors since the start of the full-scale war, escalating in tempo and specificity through 2025-2026.

For instance, GRU Unit 29155, initially conceived as a cyberwar arm, launched spear-phishing campaigns against Zelenskyy’s office and Ukrainian ministries and deployed the WhisperGate data-wiper malware ahead of the war.