Ukraine's Union Of Journalists Offers To Temporarily Lift Entry Ban On Russian Reporters

Ukraine's Union of Journalists Offers to Temporarily Lift Entry Ban on Russian Reporters

The head of Ukraine's National Union of Journalists suggested on Wednesday lifting entry ban on Russian reporters at least for five days after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy invited them to visit the country

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th December, 2019) The head of Ukraine's National Union of Journalists suggested on Wednesday lifting entry ban on Russian reporters at least for five days after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy invited them to visit the country.

Zelenskyy extended his invitation at the Normandy Four summit on Monday, so that Russian journalists get a "real" picture of what is happening in Ukraine.

"Russian media indeed say that they are banned from entering Ukraine. If there were a desire, the Security Service of Ukraine could, for example, lift the entry ban for five days at the request of the presidential office," the journalist union's president, Sergiy Tomilenko, told the 112 Ukraine tv channel.

Earlier on Wednesday, a journalist from Russia's Izvestia information center, Alexey Lazurenko, was allowed to enter Ukraine.

Since the start of the Donbas conflict, Kiev cracked down on the work of Russian media in the country, including by restricting Russian journalists' entry to Ukraine. In March 2015, Kiev suspended the accreditation of 115 Russian media outlets with the Ukrainian authorities, prior to which the broadcasting of major Russian TV channels was prohibited in Ukraine.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has earlier slammed Ukraine's measures as an attack on media freedom, calling on the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe to protect Russian media.