On April 7, the editorial staff of the communal informational agency “Novyny Poltavshchyny” received an email threatening criminal accountability for alleged spreading of fake news and lying about the Russian troops’ actions on Ukraninan territory.
The head of “Novyny Poltavshchyny” Yuriy Nikolayev reported this to the IMI representative in Poltava oblast.
According to him, the editorial staff received the first letter from user “Ilya Nekrasov,” the second one – from “Artem Krasilnikov,” both sent from mail.ru addresses.
“All the staff of Ukrainian media and websites who spread fake news and lies about the actions of Russian troops on Ukranian territory and cover for the banderites will face criminal prosecution in the nearest future. No one will go unpunished,” – such message, but written in Russian, was sent to the editorial team.
According to the journalist, the editorial team had received such threatening letters before, around 5-6 times in total.
“I tried to tell them to follow the Russian warship’s course, but the email would not go through. I tried twice,” said Yuriy Nikolayev.
On April 7, two Volyn media outlets received emails with threats from Russia.
061.ua has received similar threats three times: on March 25, March 26, and March 28.
On March 25, several Ukrainian media outlets received anonymous letters with threats: European Pravda, Hlavkom, and Zaporizhzhia websites 061.ua and inform.zp.ua. They were threatened with interrogation and imprisonment for “extremism” and “terrorism.”
“Krym.Realii” received an e-mail with threats of imprisonment in Siberia for “spreading fakes about the Russian army.”