Ukraine crisis: Russia bans words ‘invasion’ and ‘assault’ in media

Russia’s communications regulator on Saturday ordered independent media to remove reports describing Moscow’s attack on Ukraine as an “assault, invasion, or declaration of war” or face being blocked and fined.

As Russian forces moved into Kyiv, Moscow’s defence ministry also said that Russian media should stick to the official version of events.

In a statement, the communications watchdog accused a number of independent media outlets of spreading “unreliable socially significant untrue information” about the shelling of Ukrainian cities by the Russian army and civilian deaths.

These included television channel Dozhd and the country’s top independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, whose editor Dmitry Muratov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year.

On Thursday, Russian leader Vladimir Putin unleashed a full-scale invasion of Ukraine that according to Kyiv has already killed 198 people including three children and sparked fears of a greater conflict in Europe.

Citing a request from the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Russian communications regulator said the media outlets — that also include Echo of Moscow radio — will be blocked unless they remove the “unreliable information”.

“Roskomnadzor also launched an administrative investigation into the dissemination of unreliable publicly significant information by the above-mentioned media,” the watchdog said.

The offence is punishable by a fine of up to five million rubles ($60,000), it said.

Roskomnadzor also said that “reliable information” could be found in “official Russian information outlets”.

The Russian defence ministry followed suit, calling on the media “to be vigilant and not become blind victims of Western curators (leading) information pressure on our country”.

The invasion of Ukraine is taking place during an unprecedented crackdown on the Russian opposition, with top protest leaders assassinated, jailed or forced out of the country.