Seized broadcasting company in Luhansk used as school trip destination

Propagandist Leonard Svidovskov with schoolchildren. Photo from Leonard Svidovskov's Telegram channel

Children from occupied Bryanka (Luhansk oblast) were given a tour of the pro-Kremlin "LPR State Broadcasting Company", which was set up illegally on the basis of the Luhansk Oblast State Broadcasting Company (DO LODTRK) seized by Russian forces in 2014.

The video of the trip was posted on Telegram by Leonard Svidovskov, a Luhansk media worker suspected of collaborationism, who was giving the tour.

He calls himself "the chief art director of the LPR DTRK."

The video shows multiple outsiders who are present in the company's premises despite not working for the DO LODTRK, notes the representative of the Institute of Mass Information in the Luhansk oblast.

Svidovskov himself expressed hope that one of these children would want to join the propagandists.

In June 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine notified Leonard Svidovskov, who works for the "LPR State Broadcasting Company" ("LPR DTRK"), of suspicion of collaborationism. He remains Ukraine's Honored Journalist to this day.

According to the investigation, Svidovskov started working with the Novorossiya channel in 2014. Later, he was appointed deputy production director at the "LPR DTRK" and chief editor for social and political programming. The channel consistently broadcasts anti-Ukrainian content.

Svidovskov holds a senior position in the "LPR DTRK", which reports to the "LPR Ministry of Communications".

After Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine, Svidovskov sided with the occupiers. He spreads content that discredits the Ukrainian authorities and the Ukrainian Armed Forces on social media as well.