Bloomberg News agency published a headline that read, ‘Live: Russia invades Ukraine’. It went up on its homepage around midnight Moscow time and stayed there for nearly half an hour, before it was removed and an apology for the mistake issued.
Users who clicked on the shocking story while it was still up were redirected to an error page, according to the New York Post. Screenshots of Bloomberg’s website shared on Twitter indicate that the sensational claim remained largely unnoticed for at least 24 minutes before it was deleted.
The news agency admitted the blunder, saying that they “prepare headlines for many scenarios and the headline ‘Russia Invades Ukraine’ was inadvertently published around 4 p.m. ET today on our website.”
“We deeply regret the error. The headline has been removed and we are investigating the cause,” Bloomberg added in its brief mea culpa, hidden behind a paywall.
The dangerous blunder comes after months of fearmongering by western media and senior officials about Russia supposedly planning a full-scale invasion of Ukraine any day now. Those predictions have since been somewhat toned down from “imminent” by the White House, while the Kremlin has insisted all along that no attack is in the works. Moscow has repeatedly dismissed the allegations as “hysteria” and “fake news,” and even Kiev at one point criticized the West for damaging its economy with constant panic about a looming war.