A group of journalists held a virtual Zoom interview with the Ukrainian president, only to have their broadcast blocked and the reporters threatened.
Four Russian journalists interviewed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a news story that was blocked by the Kremlin, according to the New York Post.
Zelenskyy attended a 90-minute virtual interview through Zoom with Tikhon Dzyadko, Mikhail Zygar and other independent Russian journalists, including Vladimir Solovyov, who writes for a Moscow-based newspaper, Kommersant. It’s not clear if Solovyov was in Russia at the time he participated the Zoom meeting.
Zelenskyy said Russian President Vladimir Putin was surprised by the resistance the Urkanian army provided, according to an excerpt of the interview that was posted to Twitter by CNN reporter Bianna Golodryga.
According to The New York Times, Russian news media were told by the government not to publish the interview.
According to the Times, Roskomnadzor, the Kremlin’s censorship arm, issued a directive to media outlets in the country to ignore the interview and plans to investigate the journalists to “determine their responsibility.”
Putin’s government has imposed a virtual blackout on domestic media’s reporting of the war during the invasion, restricted access to social media, and the Kremlin signed into law a censorship statute that threatens prison terms for reporters who disseminate what it calls “fake news” about the Russian military in Ukraine.
Because of this, a majority of the Western news outlets have either pulled their staff out of the country or halted their reporting completely.
