The news website Novyny Donbasu is still offline after being targeted by Russian hackers, chief editor Yulia Didenko told the Institute of Mass Information representative Yulia Harkusha.
Yulia Didenko said that she had filed an online application with the cyber police on 30 March, which has already been registered. Since the cyber police has no investigative department, the decision to open a case will be made by the Pechersk Department of the Kyiv Police. Relevant material has been submitted for entering into the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations (No. 184, 31.03.2026).
“Also, the head of our organisation [NGO DII-Ukraine], Lyubov Rakovytsia, was invited to a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada’s Temporary Commission investigating Russia’s crimes against journalists on 8 April, which will discuss the work of regional media and news outlets based in areas near the frontline. She will deliver her own report on cyberattacks on local and relocated media, which are still working in difficult conditions and continue to bring news to people living under occupation. I hope that our case will achieve the investigation stage,” she said.
She added that the criminals were very difficult to reach, but officials and NGOs joining the case was a good sign for international donors and for the entire country.
“We don’t know whether they did it [attacked Novyny Donbasu] from inside Russia or from the occupied territories. We also don’t know the point of entry or the date when criminals accessed the site. Overall, it’s very hard to say how they did it, these people are very good at covering their tracks,” said Yulia Didenko.
The Novyny Donbasu website is temporarily unavaiable. Screenshot by ND
The website’s team and their partners tried to restore the resource three times, but hackers disabled it again each time. Specialists working on restoring the website say that the attack is unusual and different from previous ones.
“We are gaining some unpleasant, painful, but useful experience now, which we will be able to share with others in the future. Because all media outlets that report on occupation-related topics are in danger one way or another,” Lyubov Rakovytsia wrote in a Facebook post.
The website’s editorial staff continues to work and now posts on social media such as Youtube, Facebook, Telegram, and on Substack.
The news website Novyny Donbasu was targeted in an intense cyber-attack by Russian hackers, resulting in the website going offline. The hacker group “Cyber Sickle” has claimed responsibility for the cyber-attack, claiming that the website had been destroyed.
