A Russian tabloid on Monday deleted a report that said President Vladimir Putin's forces in Ukraine were nearing 10,000 killed in action.
Komsomolskaya Pravda, a pro-Putin daily newspaper, cited Russia's Ministry of Defense when it reported that 9,861 Russian troops had been killed and 16,153 injured during the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, the Washington Examiner reported.
The story responded to Ukrainian officials' claims that 14,700 Russian military personnel had been killed in the war.
The article then was removed from the tabloid's website, before being republished with the death toll and other information deleted, the Examiner said.
The tabloid later posted an editor's note that claimed the media outlet's website had been "hacked" and that "fake" information was "immediately removed."
"The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation refutes the information of the Ukrainian General Staff about the alleged large-scale losses of the RF Armed Forces in Ukraine. According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, during the special operation in Ukraine, the Russian Armed Forces lost 9,861 people killed, 16,153 people were injured," the Komsomolskaya Pravda article originally said.
However, a "message from the editors of KP.RU" later was posted on a separate page on the website explaining why the article had been taken down.
"On March 21, access to the administrator interface was hacked on the website of Komsomolskaya Pravda and a fake stuffing was made into a publication about the situation around the special operation in Ukraine," the message read, the Examiner said.
"Inaccurate information was immediately removed."
The last official total of Russians killed in action in Ukraine was 498, which was released by Moscow on March 2.
The U.S. estimated that more than 7,000 Russian troops had been killed since the invasion began. The United Nations estimated that at least 925 civilians were killed.
The tabloid, owned by oligarch Grigory Berezkin, also removed parts of the report that referenced to the deaths of Russian Black Sea Fleet Deputy Cmdr. Andrei Paly and the reported destruction of a Ukrainian foreign mercenary training center in Zhytomyr.
Berezkin, chairman of the ESN Group, reportedly is closely associated with Russia's state railway company. He also owns the free daily and weekly Metro newspaper.
National security think tank CNA said Berezkin's papers are read by about six million Russians daily — the highest average readership in country.
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