Bloomberg has mistakenly reported that Russia invaded Ukraine, even offering its audience a "live" feed of the "invasion".
Accidental fake news stayed on the agency's homepage for some 30 minutes, according to observers on social media, before Bloomberg eventually removed it to roll out an apology later.
"We prepare headlines for many scenarios and the headline 'Russia invades Ukraine' was inadvertently published around 4 p.m. ET today on our website," the agency explained. "We deeply regret the error. The headline has been removed and we're investigating the cause."
According to those who tried to click on the chilling Ukraine-related headlines, they led to an error page.
Screenshot
© Photo : Twitter
Screenshot
© Photo : Twitter
Social media users - some of whom were initially shocked by the triggering headline - noted that, no matter how good it is to be prepared for any scenario, the media outlet appeared to have taken it way too seriously.
"The media’s drive to be first has gone too far… You don’t need to prepackage a 'Russia invades Ukraine' headline," one of the users noted.
"How far ahead do you have to prepare the headline “Russia Invades Ukraine”?" another one wondered.
For the record there: Russia has not invaded Ukraine, and, according to the Kremlin, has no such plans.
4 February 2022, 18:23 GMT
The situation over Ukraine, however, remains tense, as the US and NATO accuse Moscow of amassing troops on the border with the neighbouring country, and are sending their own military contingents to Eastern Europe.
According to Moscow, the West has used the pretext of a purported "invasion" to beef up the Ukrainian military and create an "anti-Russia" project.
The Kremlin has repeatedly underlined that Russia does not pose any threat to Kiev, and the "invasion" claims are nothing short of provocations.
Russia has been striving to achieve a diplomatic solution to heightened tensions, proposing security guarantees agreements to the US and NATO in mid-December. Both Washington and Brussels have recently responded to the Russian proposals. The West made it clear in its responses that it was not going to break up with the NATO's "open door" policy, even though Russia has repeatedly stated that it regards NATO's expansion to the East as a matter of concern.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pointed out last week that the talks on the security guarantees have not ended, with Russia yet to react to the West's written responses.