Hackers launched an attack on the website of showman Volodymyr Zelenskiy following the announcement of his candidacy for president on New Year’s Eve, the head of Zelenskiy’s digital department Mykhailo Fedorov told news website TSN.ua on Jan. 1.
After announcing his bid for the presidency, Zelenskiy on Jan. 1 called on supporters to join his team by completing a form on his website.
But within minutes of the Zelenskiy team’s website being launched, it became unreachable. Fedorov said it was taken down by hackers in a DDoS attack – the site was bombarded by 5 million simulated requests and stopped working.
Fedorov said the attack was well planned and would have been expensive for whoever ordered it. He said the website’s servers were located in the United States and were well-protected.
“We thoroughly concealed the creation of this site. But, apparently, someone still found out,” Fedorov told TSN.
The site is currently back online, and more than 125,000 people have registered with Zelenskiy’s campaign team so far, according to figures given on the website.
Zelenskiy, 40, invited people to register as supporters in a video message posted on Jan. 1. The only stated requirement for applicants is that they have not been involved in politics before.
“Your gender, religion, education, and the language that you speak don’t matter. What matters is that you’ve never been in politics,” Zelenskiy said.
Zelenskiy announced his candidacy on Dec. 31 during a showing of the Kvartal 95 comedy program, which was aired on Ukrainian television channel 1+1. His message was broadcast in place of the traditional Presidential New Year address – President Petro Poroshenko’s speech was shown on 1+1 later than on other Ukrainian channels, and in a shortened form.
The 1+1 media group is owned by Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, an erstwhile ally of Poroshenko who was ousted as governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast after clashing with the government over control of a state oil firm.
One of Ukraine’s top comedic actors, Zelenskiy is known both as the creator and director of Kvartal 95 and for playing the Ukrainian president in the comedy series “Servant of the People.”
According to the poll carried out on Dec. 19-25 by the Democratic Initiatives Fund and the sociological service of the Razumkov Center, Zelenskiy is the third best performing candidate in the presidential race, with 8.8 percent support.
Zelenskiy trails incumbent Poroshenko, who has 13.8 percent of support. The front-runner is former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, with 16.1 percent of the vote.
The presidential campaign officially began on Dec. 31. One candidate, the self-nominated Ihor Shevchenko has registered at the Central Election Commission. The first round of the elections is set to be held on March 31, 2019.
If there is no outright winner with more than 50 percent of the vote after the March 31 poll, a second-round runoff between the top two candidates will be held on April 21.
