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NORMANDY FOUR SUMMIT

Diplomat urges Zelensky to ensure Russian journalists can travel to Ukraine

During the Normandy Four summit, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky invited Russian journalists to come to Ukraine to see the situation there with their own eyes

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova Alexander Ryumin/TASS

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova

© Alexander Ryumin/TASS

MOSCOW, December 10. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has called on Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to ensure that Russian journalists are allowed to visit Ukraine and grant them an interview.

"Mr. Zelensky, if you are serious, do something not in theory but in practice and within a specific timeframe," she wrote on her Facebook page on Tuesday. "Do invite Russian journalists. By the way, you can give them an interview as well."

Zakharova stressed that Ukraine’s Security Service did not allow Russian journalists to enter the country in order to prevent them from showing the developments in the country on Russian television.

Read also

Zelensky lacks potential to hack through Gordian knot of Ukrainian conflict — analyst

During the Normandy Four (Russia, Ukraine, France, Germany) summit, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky invited Russian journalists to come to Ukraine to see the situation there with their own eyes. He also noted that he was dissatisfied with the way Russian media covered developments in Ukraine.

That was the first invitation from the Ukrainian leader over the past few years. Former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko refused to communicate with Russian reporters. Kiev banned Russian TV channels’ broadcasts in the country, some journalists received threats, and pressure was exerted on them. Some of them were prosecuted, like, for example, RIA Novosti Ukraine Editor-in-Chief, Russian national Kirill Vyshinsky.

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Ukraine Maria Zakharova Vladimir Zelensky

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