Kiev
Ukraine on Monday blocked the websites of several prominent Russian media outlets in its latest round of sanctions against neighbouring Russia which it has accused of spreading propaganda.
Ties between the ex-Soviet countries have deteriorated sharply since Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and threw its weight behind armed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine and its Western allies have accused the Kremlin of sending troops and weapons to reinforce the separatists and also say Russia is leveraging media as a propaganda tool to stoke the conflict.
A decree from President Volodymyr Zelensky published Sunday ordered the websites of 12 Russian media organisations to be blocked in Ukraine.
They include the Vedomosti business daily, which was recently taken over by Kremlin-friendly editors, and the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, among others. The decree also ordered the organisations’ local bank accounts to be frozen.—APP
