Russian hackers blocked from halting Ukraine’s Eurovision win
Italian police confirmed yesterday that pro-Russian hackers attempted to stop Ukraine’s Eurovision win on Saturday evening.
As reported by The Times, the group Killnet tried to crash the live streaming of the show and block public voting for the 40-nation competition
“Killnet announced the attack on its Telegram channel but we were ready, and able to rebuff it,” said a spokesman for Italy’s postal police.
“The first attempt was made on Tuesday during the semi-final and peaked during the Ukrainian performance,” they added. “During the final on Saturday they tried all day to block the streaming and the voting but our firewall held”.
The final was held in Turin, Italy, and saw Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra take home the prize with 631 points, clinching 439 tele votes at the last moment and beating out UK’s Sam Ryder for the top spot.
Russia was banned from the competition because of its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, and it is understood that the Kremlin are framing the competition, as well as the Ukrainian’s win as another example of Western animosity and cancel culture.
“Everyone was expecting it and knew the result in advance. That’s normal in cancel culture . . . Why didn’t the other performers take a knee? Ukraine’s the new Black Lives Matter,” Russian MP Boris Chernyshov wrote in a Telegram post.