Russian government websites blocked in the UK
Russian government websites appear to be blocked in the UK, including the Civil Aviation Authority, as well as the Kremlin’s official site.
Morning Wire understands that when UK based browsers attempt to access these sites they are met with the following message: “Website not available. The website you requested cannot be accessed. It may work if you try again later”.
The Kremlin’s official site was down over the weekend, and the move to block the site completely from the UK may be an attempt to avoid future cyber attacks.
It comes after an array of cyberattacks have struck the world over the past few days, with rising tension between Russia and the West following its invasion of Ukraine.
According to reports from Reuters, the website of Russian state news agency TASS was hacked this morning, with the regular site replaced with an anti-war message and calls to stop President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We urge you to stop this madness, do not send your sons and husbands to certain death,” the message read.
“Putin is forcing us to lie and is putting us in danger…It’s not our war, let’s stop him!”
Facebook owner Meta also said in the early hours of this morning that a hacking group used Facebook to target a handful of public figures in Ukraine, including prominent military officials, politicians and a journalist.
Over the past two days, it had separately removed a network of about 40 fake accounts, groups and pages across Facebook and Instagram that operated from Russia and Ukraine targeting people in Ukraine, for violating its rules against coordinated inauthentic behaviour.