The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has called on the international community to introduce and expand sanctions against Russian media that disseminate false information, including to justify Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine.

"Now it is critically important 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 media that disseminate false information, including to justify Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on the International Day to end impunity for crimes against journalists.

The Foreign Ministry said 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 kidnappings of media representatives, arrests, seizure of TV towers, groundless searches in the premises of editorial offices are just a small list of crimes of Russian invaders against the media, the ministry said.

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

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry also notes the alarming deterioration in 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 the coverage of the crimes of the Russian occupiers. According to human rights activists, currently 14 journalists, including citizen journalists, are being held behind bars in the occupied Crimea or on the territory of the Russian Federation," the ministry said.

It is indicated that the invasion of Russian troops became a new countdown for brutal repressions against representatives of regional media, in particular, hundreds of media outlets in the temporarily occupied territories were forced to stop working due to threats and the inability to carry 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, while the occupiers are broadcasting Russian state channels. Russia is also waging an active information war, spreading disinformation about Ukraine, conducting special operations to undermine society and discredit relations with international partners," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.

The Foreign Ministry said Ukraine and its partners will also continue to make efforts to investigate the crimes of Russia against journalists in Ukraine and the activities of Russian propagandists involved in criminal information operations as an integral part of a full-scale war against Ukraine.

"The perpetrators of these atrocities will be brought to the strictest accountability. We thank the thousands of Ukrainian and international journalists who, often at the risk of their own lives, tell the world the truth about the war in Ukraine," the ministry said.