World media took part in the Russia's press-tour on the occupied territories – Ukraine reacted

Representatives of a number of international media outlets took part in a propaganda press-tour by the Russian Ministry of Defense by illegally visiting the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. About this reported Ukrainian diplomatic spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyi.

"I am outraged by the information about a number of international media outlets that took part in a propaganda offensive to the occupied territories of Ukraine organized by the Russian Ministry of Defense. Each of its participants violated international law and the national legislation of Ukraine by crossing an uncontrolled section of our state border, and all of them face legal consequences, including entry bans," the official wrote.

According to him, the media that participated in this will face "far-reaching consequences for their reputation and operations in Ukraine."

Tykhyi announced an official appeal by the Foreign Ministry to the headquarters of all these publications in their respective capitals, demanding that they apologize and stop such behavior.

"If Russian war criminals lead you by the hand to the land they stole and caused incredible suffering to, only to present you with a false facade, this is not journalism, but whitewashing of war crimes," the spokesman emphasized.

He reminded that at the moment of this attack, at least 28 Ukrainian journalists are being illegally detained in Russian prisons: "Their release has been and remains an extremely difficult task – for example, the efforts to free UNIAN journalist Dmytro Khilyuk took a long time."

Tykhyi also added that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Moscow has committed more than 800 crimes against journalists and media in Ukraine.

"This reality will NOT be shown to gullible foreign journalists who have been on a propaganda tour of the Russian Defense Ministry, because Russia is a state of strict censorship, and everyone knows it. Such tours are one of the reasons why trust in the media is falling, and people are choosing social networks instead of those journalists who are unable to distinguish right from wrong," the official emphasized.

The spokesperson noted that he had already initiated the necessary identification of the list of media outlets and their representatives who participated in this propaganda event in order to ensure the above consequences.

Tykhyi did not specify which media outlets he was referring to.

• On September 22, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the illegal visit of the ambassadors of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to the temporarily occupied Crimea.