Journalists say that Natalya Gumenyuk prohibits covering Russian war crimes.
head of the joint coordination A number of Ukrainian media workers appealed to the leadership The Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Ministry of Defense with complaints against the Speaker of the Southern Defense Forces Natalya Gumenyuk.
According to the Institute of Mass Information, media workers signed a statement addressed to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Alexander Syrsky, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and Chief of the General Staff Anatoly Bargilevich. The media community accused Gumenyuk of prohibiting coverage of Russian war crimes in the serviceman’s area of responsibility.
Media workers demand that the Ukrainian military leadership replace Gumenyuk “with a more competent person.”
“The Russians do not stop attacking the Kherson region: they are destroying Kherson, turning the city of Berislav into ruins, while the Ukrainian military is steadfastly repelling their attacks. But neither the first nor the second is seen by the Ukrainians or the world. They see how the Ukrainian military defends Vremya Yar and how the Russians are destroying it. How the Ukrainian military is holding Kupyansk and the villages around, and the Russians are trying to destroy them,” the statement says.
Media workers complained that the serviceman was prohibited from entering the flooded cities in the Kherson region and sat down on the day of the explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric station. Then the world media quoted Russian military officers, because there was almost no information from the Ukrainian side. The statement says that Gumenyuk prohibited the situation in some villages where water had disappeared due to the explosion of a hydroelectric power station, and the removal of the bottom of a dried-up reservoir; Kherson rescue services refused to take journalists with them to eliminate the consequences of Russian crimes in Berislav; unlike other areas, the Kherson region does not have access to hospitals and stabilization centers where wounded defenders and civilians are treated; due to prohibitions, journalists work tens of kilometers from the real front line in the Kherson region.
“Journalists managed to record Russian war crimes mainly by circumventing the restrictions established in the zone of Ms. Gumenyuk’s subordination, and not with her assistance,” the signatories emphasized.
Among the media workers’ demands:
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- replace Natalya Gumenyuk with a “competent person and not allow her to participate in any communications management”;
- provide access for journalists to the areas of the Kherson region and neighboring regions where key events are taking place, taking into account the requirements of Order No. 73 of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine;
- conduct an audit of the existing rules for the operation of the press centers of the operational command “South” and the united, newly created OSUV “Tavria” (formerly OSUV “Odessa” and OSUV “Tavria”);.< /li>
- not allow Anna Malyar to manage any communication structures of the Defense Forces.
The statement was signed by the Association of Ukrainian Media “Mediarukh”, Media Detector, the DeepStateUA team and dozens of reporters, photojournalists, and producers.