Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers has decided to continue analogue broadcasting in territories bordering Russia, as well as for the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine (UA:PBC) and local TV companies that do not have licenses for digital broadcasting on the list of the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting until December 31 2018.

This decision was passed by the Cabinet at a meeting on Wednesday.

The Cabinet's respective resolution and its explanatory note, which are available to Interfax-Ukraine, say that the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting should identify a number of channels that will continue broadcasting until December 31 of this year with the goal of protecting the national information space of Ukraine during the transition from analog to digital broadcasting.

In particular, such channels will include those based in the territories adjacent to the Ukrainian-Russian border, in the Joint Forces Operation zone, in Russian-occupied Crimea, as well as UA:PBC channels and local TV companies that do not have licenses for digital broadcasting.

The list of such channels, according to the Cabinet resolution, will be determined by the National Council separately.

Also, the Cabinet instructed the State Service of Special Communication and Information Protection of Ukraine to finalize within two days the resolution in terms of clarifying the terms and entities involved in broadcasting.

As reported earlier, the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council asked the Cabinet of Ministers to keep analogue broadcasting in the border areas, for UA:PBC and local TV companies.

In June, the Cabinet extended the use of radio technologies for analogue TV broadcast until August 31, 2018, for all regions except the city of Kyiv and Kirovohrad region, where the deadline for the end of analog broadcasting is July 31, 2018.