In Donetsk, because of threats from Donetsk People’s Republic five Ukrainian TV channels got switched off

On June 5, in Donetsk the telecommunication company MATRIX (LLC "Donbaski Elektronni Komunikatsiyi") following the demands of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic was forced to switch off Ukrainian channels: Channel 5, 1+1, "Donbas", UBR and NEWS 24. The company placed an announcement about this on its website along with the terrorists’ demands.

The demands dated June 1 read as follows: ‘In connection with proliferation by separate Ukrainian channels of information directed at instigation of hatred between the Russian and Ukrainian peoples, racial antipathy, propaganda of national and social hatred, neo-Nazism, glorification of minions of German Nazism, agitation to violence, proliferation of false ??information about activities of Donetsk People’s Republic, in compliance with the Donetsk People’s Republic’s constitution for the purpose of curtailing the escalating violence on the territory of the republic and stabilization of the situation, we demand to cease broadcasting...".

The terrorists threatened that if their demands were not met they would resort to measures that was put an end to broadcasting of all Ukrainian channels as they did not “guarantee safety of the staff or of the equipment".

For the context, on June 2 in Makiyivka (Donetska oblast) following the demands of the representatives of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic Channel 5, the First National TV channel, “Rada”, and “Donbass” got switched off, and on June 2 in Donetsk the cable operator LLC “TV and Radio Company Miske Budivnytstvo” was forced to switch off four Ukrainian TV channels under the order of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.