SBU charges Prigozhin associate for launching propaganda channel in occupied Kherson
Read NV on Google
Ukraine’s SBU security service has charged political strategist Aleksandr Malkevich, who opened a pro-Kremlin TV and radio company in the temporarily occupied part of Kherson Oblast, with collaboration, an SBU message posted on Telegram on June 17 reads.
Since 2018, Malkevich has been a member of the close circle of the leader of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and under his coordination has created media projects around the world to spread pro-Kremlin content, the SBU noted.
The channel launched by Malkevich began broadcasting in occupied Kherson using the seized premises of Ukraine’s public broadcaster UA:PBC (Suspilne). The TV channel was used to spread fake news about the situation at the front, the situation in Ukraine, as well as to support the sham referendum on the accession of Kherson Oblast to the Russian Federation.
The suspect reportedly received the full assistance of local Moscow-appointed governor Vladimir Saldo and the "Minister of Information Policy of Kherson Oblast", collaborator Yevgeny Brykov. Ismail Abdulayev, a propagandist of the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic" and former head of the pro-Kremlin Oplot TV channel in temporarily occupied Donetsk, became the head of the TV and radio company.
During the liberation of Kherson, the staff of the TV channel left the city together with the Russian army, moving to the east bank of the Dnipro River.
Abdulayev and six other subordinates of Malkevich were also charged by the SBU.
The suspects are currently hiding in the temporarily occupied part of southern Ukraine. If captured and convicted, they could face up to 12 years in prison.
The military war may be swinging in our favor, but the information war continues.
Just as an army needs soldiers, so does a free society need its journalists to ensure that people have access to honest, trustworthy voices to understand the world around them.
For the past five years, The New Voice of Ukraine has been working tirelessly to push back against Russian narratives and defend democracy. But we cannot do it alone.
Please consider supporting us on Patreon for just $5 a month – your donation does directly to supporting journalists and ensuring that this front of the infowar says solid and defended.
Thank you.
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News
