Russia is enacting a policy of completely removing Ukraine from the media environment in occupied Crimea. The word “Ukrainian” is avoided even in discussions of Ukrainian drone strikes, said Institute of Mass Information analyst Olena Holub in a comment for Suspilne Crimea.
“They try not to mention it at all, and sometimes this can even look quite strange: when Ukrainian drones fly over Crimea, they call them ‘enemy drones’ without highlighting the fact that they are Ukraine’s. That is, they want to remove Ukraine in every possible way, to exclude it from the Crimeans’ minds so that they never mention it at all,” the analyst explains.
Olena Holub said that Russia was increasing expenditures on state television by 54% in the new 2026 budget, planning to spend more than 106 billion rubles (≈53 billion hryvnias). Olena Holub is certain that the Kremlin needs the money to further accelerate its “propaganda machine.”
“The Russian state is completely ideology-based. And one of the key factors in promoting this ideology is, of course, the media. And the fact is that Russia will continue to ramp up this ideological component as long as it exists,” says Olena Holub.
Earlier, Russian authorities in Crimea opened an administrative case against historian Enver Seyitmemetov, 74, the uncle of three political prisoners (Seitumer, Osman, and Abdulmecit Seyitumerov), for “equating the USSR’s actions with those of Nazi Germany.”
