The Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda published a report, later removed, that the Russian Defense Ministry had recorded 9,861 deaths by Russian forces in the war in Ukraine.
The tabloid’s report originally read: “According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Russian forces lost 9,861 killed and 16,153 wounded during the special operation in Ukraine.”
CNN analyzed the HTML on the website, which indicates that the article was published at 00:09 Moscow time on Monday.
Seconds after CNN read the original article — at 9:56 p.m. Moscow time, according to the HTML — the story was updated and all references to the death toll removed. This update on the outlet’s website came shortly after the article drew attention from social media posts citing the number of deaths.
Some background: As of March 2, Russia has not reported a military death toll. The tabloid’s original report concurs with US Department of Defense estimates of up to 10,000 Russian military deaths.
After the update, Komsomolskaya Pravda later released a statement saying that “access to the admin interface was hacked” and that “a fake insert was made in a publication.”
They claimed that “inaccurate information was immediately removed.” CNN analysis showed that the update came after 21 hours.