The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine called on the international community to introduce and expand sanctions against Russian propaganda media that spread disinformation, in particular, to discredit relations with international partners.

The statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was published on November 2, the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs notes that Russia is waging an active information war, spreading disinformation about Ukraine, conducting special operations aimed at destabilizing society and discrediting Ukraine's relations with international partners.

"Now it is critical to consolidate joint efforts to combat Russian propaganda and disinformation, in particular by stopping the activities of Russian propaganda broadcasters abroad. In this context, we call on the international community to introduce and expand sanctions against Russian mass media that spread false information, including for the purpose of justifying Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine," the Foreign Ministry said in the statement.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reminds that since 2014, Russia's war against Ukraine has been accompanied by crimes against journalists and the destruction of independent journalism in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories. Murders and abductions of media representatives, arrests, seizure of television towers, groundless searches of editorial offices are just a small list of crimes committed by the Russian occupiers against the media.

Since February 2022, during eight months of full-scale aggression, Russia has committed 457 crimes against journalists and media in Ukraine, according to monitoring data from the Institute of Mass Information. As of October, the Russian occupiers have killed more than forty Ukrainian and foreign journalists.

"We also note the alarming deterioration of the situation with human rights and freedom of speech in the temporarily occupied Crimea. After the occupation in 2014, when independent journalists were forced out of the peninsula or arrested, the phenomenon of citizen journalism is developing on the peninsula. Ordinary citizens, risking their lives, join in covering the crimes of the Russian occupiers. According to the information of human rights defenders, currently 14 journalists, in particular, citizen journalists, are being held behind bars in the occupied Crimea or on the territory of the Russian Federation," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

The invasion of Russian troops became a new record of brutal repression against representatives of the regional media: hundreds of media in the temporarily occupied territories were forced to stop work due to threats and the impossibility of carrying out journalistic activities under the conditions of temporary occupation.

Ukrainian regions occupied by Russia are systematically isolated from the Ukrainian information space, Ukrainian broadcasting and the work of national Internet operators are blocked there, instead, the occupiers broadcast Russian state channels.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Ukraine and its partners will continue to make efforts to investigate Russian crimes against journalists in Ukraine and the activities of Russian propagandists who are involved in criminal information operations as an integral component of a full-scale war against Ukraine.

Those guilty of these crimes will be held to the strictest punishment. We express our gratitude to thousands of Ukrainian and international journalists who, often risking their own lives, tell the world the truth about the war in Ukraine," the diplomats summarized.

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, reminded the Russian propagandists, who justify the crimes of the Russian army in Ukraine, about the fate of their "colleague" from the time of the Third Reich, the anti-Semite Julius Streicher, who was executed for calling for genocide.

Ukrainian media also called on the international community to bring to justice Russian propagandists who are responsible for barbaric crimes in Ukraine as well as the direct perpetrators – the Russian military and their command.

The full text of the statement:

“In light of the ongoing full-scale aggression of the terrorist country of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, we, representatives of the Ukrainian media, call on the international community to bring to justice not only the servicemen of the Russian invading army but also the so-called "journalists" who are in reality the mouthpieces of Kremlin propaganda.

The responsibility for the barbaric crimes committed by the Russian invaders on the territory of independent Ukraine lies not only with their direct perpetrators but also with the propagandists who fuel the spiral of hatred towards the entire Ukrainian people.

Olga Skabeeva, Vladimir Solovyov, Dmitry Kiselev, Margarita Simonyan are just the tip of the iceberg of a pack of liars and raiders pretending to be journalists. They are backed by hundreds, if not thousands, of workers of the modern Goebbels machine.

Incitement of ethnic hatred, fraud, lies, disinformation, and justification of the murders of tens of thousands of innocent people cannot be considered journalism, and the state-run Russian propaganda centers will never be mass media. Every Russian propagandist who has contributed to the existence of this factory of evil must be brought to justice by an international tribunal.

This year's Congress of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in Oman acknowledged that "Most of the Russian media incite hysteria and hatred", and the Congress of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) noted that among "those responsible for fomenting war... are journalists, managers, employees of federal and local media who deliberately worked and are working to strengthen the dictatorial regime, violating all professional standards".

We call on the international journalistic organizations and national media associations of the world to keep putting pressure on governments and international institutions to recognize all representatives of the Kremlin's deception machine guilty of the genocide of the Ukrainian people and crimes against the peace and security of mankind.

Today, the world journalistic community is facing a dramatic choice - to withstand the onslaught of propaganda and preserve the profession, and the trust of its audience, or... to allow propagandists to continue to call themselves journalists and mock journalistic standards.

Still... Light will triumph over darkness! Just as Truth will vanquish deceit!”