Speaking at the conference “The Right to Truth: New European Regulations and Multidimensional Threats in Wartime”, Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets said that journalists played a key role in countering Russian disinformation and propaganda, and that the international community must boost support for Ukrainian media, reports Detector Media.
Lubinets said that Russia had been waging a deliberate war on Ukraine and the democratic world for the past 12 years, with one of the key fronts of attack being the information war.
“All the disinformation campaigns, efforts to discredit Ukrainian authorities, to discredit international aid to the Ukrainian army — the Russian Federation keeps maximum focus on all of this,” the Commissioner said.
He added that Russia was stepping up funding for propaganda and actively promoting it beyond Ukraine’s borders, including within the European Union, the US, and Canada. The purpose of this, he said, is to discredit support for Ukraine and Ukrainians.
In this situation, Dmytro Lubinets stressed, journalism is becoming a crucial tool for fighting Russian propaganda.
“In this context, the work of journalists is what comes forward,” the Commissioner said.
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Dmytro Lubinets thanked Ukrainian media professionals for their work and called them “heroes of Ukraine’s information front.” He praised the work of Ukrainian media outlets and organisations engaged in debunking Russian fake news.
“I want to give special thanks to journalists for the work they do year after year combating propaganda and debunking fakes: namely StopFake, Detector Media, the Institute of Mass Information, and Vox,” Dmytro Lubinets said.
Commissioner said that his institution was running an information campaign together with the cyber police to counter scams exploiting the issue of prisoners of war and missing persons.
Lubinets said that the necessity to maintain a balance between the public’s right to information, security, and people’s privacy posed another challenge. He reported that the Commissioner’s Office had drafted recommendations for the media community on protecting personal data and privacy while working on their stories. At the same time, Lubinets pointed out cases where state bodies and local authorities failed to provide journalists with public information.
“We are always on the side of journalists and investigative journalism,” he stated, adding that his institution had already assisted dozens of journalistic investigations and stood ready to continue this work.
Another challenged Dmytro Lubinets pointed out was the evolution of artificial intelligence and the need to introduce appropriate AI regulations. He said that his institution had partnered with the Ministry of Digital Transformation back in 2024 and prepared practical recommendations on using AI in line with Ukrainian law and EU best practices.
In August 2026, Dmytro Lubinets said that Ukraine was in talks with Russia regarding the release of civilian hostages, including a separate list of Ukrainian journalists.