'The Hour of Reckoning Has Come': Millions See Dire Message on TV
Suspected Ukrainian hackers were able to humiliate Russia Thursday by sending everyday Russians a message on their TV screens.
“The hour of reckoning has come,” hackers posted on Russian TV screens, according to the U.K. Sun.
The Sun reported that Russia claimed Ukraine’s defense ministry created the video, which featured scenes of Ukrainian troops in battlefield successes as well as the ominous message – which was put in white type against a stark black background.
Channels hacked including the Russian Defense Ministry’s own channel as well as two state-owned stations.
When the video of the troops was over, clips of ballet dancers performing “Swan Lake,” according to The Sun.
The U.K. Express wrote that, in the days of the old Soviet Union, video loops of “Swan Lake” played after the deaths of several Soviet leaders.
Russian TV had been hacked in June, according to Deadline.
At that time, a “deepfake” image of Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the imposition of martial law due to a Ukrainian incursion.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later admitted the incident was a hack, but said it would never happen again.
Ukraine began its counter-offensive last month to regain ground taken by Russia, but progress has been slow.
Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s top commander, has bristled at suggestions that the attack has been a dud, according to The Washington Post.
“This is not a show,” Zaluzhny said late last month. “It’s not a show the whole world is watching and betting on or anything. Every day, every meter, is given by blood.”
“Without being fully supplied, these plans are not feasible at all. But they are being carried out. Yes, maybe not as fast as the participants in the show, the observers, would like, but that is their problem,” he said.
He said that he needs jets that can match what Russia has.
“Nobody is saying that tomorrow we should rearm and get 120 planes. Why? I do not need 120 planes. I’m not going to threaten the whole world. A very limited number would be enough. But they are needed. Because there is no other way. Because the enemy is using a different generation of aviation,” he said.
“It’s like we’d go on the offensive with bows and arrows now, and everyone would say, ‘Are you crazy?’ But with this question, ‘No, no.’”
Russia is reportedly dealing with morale issues.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 15 July 2023.
Find out more about Defence Intelligence’s use of language: https://t.co/S5TDxvdwT7
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/qj8XX0UD3R
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) July 15, 2023
Last week, the Russian military sacked former Gen. Ivan Popov for criticizing his commanders, according to Insider.
Popov publicly bemoaned “the lack of counter-battery combat, the absence of artillery reconnaissance stations and the mass deaths and injuries of our brothers in enemy artillery fire.”
After he was removed, according to Insider, he said, “our senior commander hit us from the rear, treacherously and vilely decapitating the army at the most difficult and tense moment.”
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