DONETSK, February 4. /TASS/. A Donbass police official on Friday said the removal by some social media of accounts held by Ukraine’s self-proclaimed republics represented a violation of the UN-backed right for freedom of information.

"The removal of the Internet resources of the Donets and Lugansk people’s republics violates the fundamental norms and principles of the United Nations concerning the right for freedom of information," Eduard Basurin, deputy chief of the Donetsk People’s Republic’s police, said in a statement.

Donetsk believes that the takedowns are part of Operation Crushing Sword unleashed by Ukrainian and Western intelligence agencies against the DPR and LPR. "The goal is an information blockade of the independent republics to take away our opportunity to swiftly report to the world community how the Kiev regime is preparing for an aggression in Donbass," the statement said.

According to Basurin, the accounts that were shut down by YouTube had an audience of 2 million people, mostly in Ukraine. The Donetsk republic believes the takedowns show the "deceitfulness of the Ukrainian leadership and their Western sponsors, who try to convince the global community that Kiev allegedly doesn’t have plans of aggression in Donbass and conceal their preparations for an offensive."

Earlier, DPR Information Minister Igor Antipov earlier said that YouTube blocked the accounts of his agency and the police’s. It was soon afterward reported that YouTube also blocked the account of the Luganskinformcenter news service while Facebook shut down the account of Lugansk People’s Republic’s police. The DPR said they would double down their activity on RuTube instead.