Slidstvo.Info says they were asked to remove mentions of fortification issues in Kharkiv oblast from their report

Illustration by Slidstvo.Info

Slidstvo.Info reports that they were asked to remove all references to problems with missing or incomplete fortifications in Kharkiv oblast from their material which was released on June 6.

The article in question is "Russian psyop or a political issue: soldiers forbidden to talk about fortifications in Kharkiv oblast."

Slidstvo.Info journalists spoke with servicemen of three different brigades of the Defense Forces which are holding back the Russian offensive in Kharkiv oblast. According to the article, the command had given some of them "a talk" and recommended not to discuss anything related to fortifications with journalists.

One of the soldiers interviewed by the journalists said: "They told us not to mention the fortifications, not to mention the offensive, not to mention the lost villages. Do not make anything public. They didn't explain it. They only said that we would be playing into the enemy's hands. And the fortifications are very bad, really very bad – everything has to be rebuilt."

As journalists learned from the soldiers:

• cases when soldiers had to complete the fortifications on their own are not isolated;
• some fortifications are missing or incomplete;
• there have been complaints about the built quality.

As Slidstvo.Info notes, the attempts to influence the team with regards to this material lasted three days.

"Namely they were asking us to remove all mentions of issues with missing or incomplete fortifications from the interviews. They tried to 'persuade' the journalists for three days. Moreover, this was done by representatives of different levels of command. Some of them appealed to the fact that fortifications are now a 'political issue', and the mention of specific units in this context may lead to 'pressure on them from above,'" the article says.

The editors say that in the end it is difficult to see the big picture with fortifications in Kharkiv oblast for several reasons. One such reason is that getting an official answer as to "How ready is the 'second line' of defense?" is impossible. The Support Forces say that such information could help the enemy.

"Journalists trying to report on the combat in Kharkiv oblast find themselves in a situation where they either have to keep silent about fortifications (which the soldiers themselves tell them about), or discuss these problems at risk of being banned from working in the area and causing problems for the soldiers themselves. In both cases, everyone loses. Because the issues remain, and the shifts in the front line are not in our favor," the article says.

In her comment to the Institute of Mass Information, Slidstvo.Info editor-in-chief Nastya Stanko reported that it was the military that tried to influence the media outlet, namely to have the featured soldiers' words about fortifications from the article.