Ukraine to Launch State-Run Russian-Language TV Channel in Information War

The Ukrainian presidential office has announced their intention to launch a worldwide Russian-language TV channel as part of an information war with neighboring Russia. The channel will be state-run, but may include some content from private Ukrainian channels that produce Russian-language content.

“It must be admitted that Ukraine practically lost the information war for the minds of people in the occupied territories of Donbass and in occupied Crimea,” deputy chief of staff Kyrylo Tymoshenko told Ukraine’s news agency.

This policy is particularly noteworthy since the separatist movement in Donbass came in part because post-Maidan Ukraine’s government became very hostile to the Russian-speaking minority, and tried to severely restrict the use of Russian language.

Recently elected President Zelenskiy has promised to end the Donbass rebellion. Assuming this ends up being something short of a very overt propaganda channel, a Russian-language station could help bridge the communications gap with the mostly ethnic-Russian East.