Russia’s communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, threatened to shut down any media outlet that describes Putin’s attack on Ukraine as an “assault, invasion, or declaration of war,” according to the Moscow Times.
On Saturday, Roskomnadzor accused several independent media outlets of spreading “unreliable socially significant untrue information” about the shelling of Ukrainian cities by the Russian army and civilian deaths.
Among those who received warning letters were television channel Dozhd and the country’s top independent newspaper Novaya whose editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize last year.
If the outlets do not use “reliable information” found in “official Russian information outlets” they would be blocked by the Kremlin and forced to pay a fine of up to five million rubles ($60,000).
Putin launched an all-out assault on Ukraine with missiles, warplanes and tanks on Thursday. At the time he called it a “special military operation” to prevent a genocide against Russian-speakers and a “demilitarization and de-Nazification of Ukraine.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that at least 137 people were killed and 316 injured after Russia launched its invasion Thursday, attacking key cities and taking control of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Russia has remained tight lipped about Russian losses in the war with Ukraine but Ukrainian officials says more than 1,000 Russian soldiers have been killed so far.
