Poltava City Council's executive committee holds an "off-limits" meeting but admits one media outlet in

On September 4, the Poltava City Council's executive committee held a meeting which was off-limits for the media, yet was attended by journalists from the TV channel IRT-Poltava, reports "Poltavshchyna".

According to the media outlet, the Poltava City Council Sectretary and Acting Mayor Kateryna Yamshchykova had said that this meeting would be off-limits to journalists and that there would be no livestream. However, the journalists found out that meeting had been livestreamed.

The executive committee was discussing a decision to allocate materials from the city reserve to help the city's residents affected by the September 3 missile strike.

In a comment to the IMI's regional representative, the head of the Poltava City Council press office, Maryna Serova, explained that at the time of the meeting being announced in the group chat with the media, when it was said that the meeting would be "off-limits", the City Council was maintaining media silence when making any public announcements.

"The media silence was related to the emergency situation and would last until official instructions were received from the higher authorities for safety reasons under martial law," Maryna Serova said.

"The team learned about the executive committee meeting in the Telegram chat between journalists and the City Council. Accordingly, the journalists went to attend the meeting," said Ihor Kuzhyk, the head of IRT-Poltava, in a comment to the IMI representative.