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Kiev suspects RIA Novosti Ukraine staff of high treason

Investigators have evidence proving that this agency received money for waging a misinformation war against Ukraine, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko said

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko Mykola Lazarenko/Press Office of the President of Ukraine/TASS

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko

© Mykola Lazarenko/Press Office of the President of Ukraine/TASS

KIEV, May 15. /TASS/. Kiev suspects staff members of the RIA Novosti Ukraine news agency of high treason, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko said on Tuesday.

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"Investigators have evidence proving that this agency received money for waging a misinformation war against Ukraine, which involved Ukrainian citizens who also obtained Russian citizenship," he wrote on Facebook. "Actions taken by these people may be qualified as high treason in accordance with Article 111 of the [Ukrainian] Criminal Code," Lutsenko added.

Earlier on Tuesday, SBU Spokesperson Yelena Gitlyanskaya confirmed the detention of Kirill Vyshinsky, the chief of the RIA Novosti Ukraine news agency, and searches in the agency’s Kiev office. At the same time, the SBU issued a statement announcing that "a network of media structures, which Moscow used for carrying out a hybrid war" against Kiev had been exposed.

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