Russian state broadcaster hacking attacks on Putin's birthday

Pro-Ukrainian hackers have claimed to have attacked Russian state media for Russian President Vladimir Putin's 72nd birthday.

On the morning of the 7th local time, the homepages of the news channel Rossiya 24 and the state-run broadcaster VGTRK, which operates the channel, were down.

The broadcaster said its online service was under cyberattack overnight.

VGTRK is a state media company that owns major state television channels, local channels, and radio broadcasts.

"Ukrainian hackers attacked VGTRK on a large scale to 'celebrate' Putin's birthday," a Ukrainian government source said.

The pro-Ukrainian hacker group "Sudorm-RF," which has repeatedly attacked Russia, is said to have claimed they attacked.

"The digital infrastructure of VGTRK, one of Russia's largest, has come under unprecedented hacker attacks," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a briefing, adding that experts were working to trace the context and behind the attacks.