Ukraine is deeply concerned about the long-term deterioration of the situation with freedom of speech in the Russian media, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has reported.

"For many years, Russia has occupied one of the last places in the world rankings by this figure [media freedom]. Virtually all reputable organization in this field agree that Russia is not free country in terms of freedom of speech and the media, actually complete censorship holds sway in the country, whereas independent television channels and publications can be counted on the fingers of one hand," the director of the ministry's information policy department, Yevhen Perebyinis, said at a briefing on Wednesday.

He drew attention to the fact that Russia was facing not only professional, but also "moral degradation of the media."

"Just a screaming example of this was the so-called questioning by terrorists of employees of the Ukrainian special services in Sloviansk, which cannot but be called brutal torture," he said.

Perebyinis said he was surprised that there were no protests on this issue in Russia itself.

"The direct involvement of foreign nationals, including journalists, in unlawful actions in Ukraine related to the capture of state institutions, hostages, torture, and other crimes that are committed today by terrorists in the east of our country, of course, will not go unanswered," he said.

In this regard, the Foreign Ministry again called on Russian journalists not to forget about such things as "human dignity, moral principles and elementary decency."