© AFP/Stephanie Lecocq
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
One of Ukraine's most prominent news outlets has been taken offline after the country's
National Security and Defense Council marked it out as a threat, thus adding the title to the growing list of banned opposition media groups.
Strana.ua, one of the country's best-known mainstream news sites, was unavailable on Friday after officials included both its parent company and its editor, Igor Guzhva, in a new tranche of restrictions. Network service providers began blocking access to its domains. However, in a statement posted online, its journalists said that they would continue to work, having relocated their content to a new web address, and slammed the decision to hit "the largest opposition publication in Ukraine with sanctions."
The Russian-language outlet has been strongly critical of the increasingly authoritarian nature of pro-Western President Volodymyr Zelensky's administration in Kiev.
Defending the decision, Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council secretary,
Alexey Danilov, said the move was based on "documents" held by the country's SBU security agency, the successor to the Soviet KGB. However, he refused to disclose the basis of the allegations, saying only that
Guzhva, who fled to Austria in 2018 and was later granted asylum there,
and organizations linked to him were being targeted because "they are engaged in illegal activities on the territory of our country."
Also facing new restrictions are a number of Russian citizens, judges and officials, and even a member of the Ukrainian national parliament, independent
MP Andrey Derkach.
Comment: Humanity is being 'defaced' and dehumanized by changes that may never self-correct. As more folks succumb to the pressures of the COVID scheme, increasing resistance may become the only option.