Today's map from Ukrainian military authorities...
Moscow has assailed Kyiv over the latter's media ban -- which targets dozens of Russian stations and their journalists' accreditations, and should last until the current conflict is over -- as "openly discriminatory."
Ukrainian officials have made some arguably questionable decisions with respect to the media since the conflict erupted.
But Russian media have also been guilty of credulity, spreading disinformation, and seemingly participating in the abuse of prisoners of war and hostages.
Notably, Russian TV channel Dozhd was not among the banned media by Ukraine.
Whether intentional or not, in this RT piece, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov laughably describes Russia as "a country where media activity is regulated by law, and where Russian and foreign journalists have equal rights to obtain information."
Stunning, and stunningly "brazen," to quote Washington.
Oh, are "they"? :-)
And in cased you missed it, another bit of Russian information warfare debunked via The Independent:
Cuz trollers gonna troll:
Novosti.dn.ua quotes Ukrainian forces as saying that on Saturday they shot down "another" unmanned drone (UAV), this one from over Starobelsk.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk spoke with Fox News in a bid to pressure the West further to supply weapons to his country as it battles pro-Russian fighters and their Kremlin patron, Vladimir Putin. (h/t: @EliotHiggins)
“We are very far from a collapse,” Yatsenyuk told Fox News. “You know why? We don't have a cease fire … because a cease fire means that no one shoots. Cease fire means that Russian-led terrorists do not make any kind of ongoing shellings, that they do not kill Ukrainian soldiers and innocent people.”
He later adds:
Yatsenyuk also said Saturday there is “no doubt” that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to take over Ukraine.
“But let me provide you a bigger scope, what's really the ultimate goal of President Putin. ... He's fighting with all of us.”
He also repeated his plea for Western allies to supply weapons to the out-gunned Ukrainian forces.
“We have to defend ourselves,” Yatsenyuk said. “Russia is constantly supplying tanks, surface-to-air missiles and the rest of the stuff. And again everyone knows this. We still use outdated Soviet-style equipment.”
From our newsroom:
The Ukrainian military and pro-Russian rebels have agreed to pull back heavy weapons from the front line in eastern Ukraine in accordance with the recent cease-fire agreement.
Petro Kanonik, commander of Ukrainian officers at the Common Coordination Control Center for the Cease-Fire, says the two-week process of arms removal will begin today.
In the rebel-held Donetsk, Russian media quote senior separatist commander Eduard Basurin as saying that rebels have signed the orders to complete the withdrawal over the next two weeks, starting today.
Under the terms of the truce, mediated by Germany and France and (at least partially) put into effect on February 15, the withdrawal of the weapons was meant to have started on February 17 and be completed by March 3.
But the pullback was delayed due to fighting in the strategic town of Debaltseve, which government troops pulled out of on February 18. Pro-Russian forces quickly moved in to seize the town, prompting accusations by the West that Moscow and its rebel proxies were engaging in "an absolutely brazen and cynical process."
The announcements come as Ukraine and the separatists exchanged a total of 191 prisoners late on February 21.
Based on reporting by Interfax, AFP, dpa, and BBC