The US and NATO do not forbid media outlets from commenting on Russian military achievements

By Vistinomer On Feb 20, 2025 0

Photo: Canva Collage

A Facebook post falsely claims media outlets in our country are prohibited from commenting on Russian military successes in Donbas to avoid angering “the Fortress” (the US Embassy) and “Rada” (Radmila Shekerinska, NATO’s Deputy Secretary General). According to this post, these figures are so influential that the media is allegedly self-censoring out of fear. However, media outlets continue to report on and comment on these successes, with some outlets even uncritically citing Russian propaganda sources

A Facebook post falsely claims media outlets in our country are prohibited from commenting on Russian military successes in Donbas to avoid angering “the Fortress” (the US Embassy) and “Rada” (Radmila Shekerinska, NATO’s Deputy Secretary General). According to this post, these figures are so influential that the media is allegedly self-censoring out of fear. However, media outlets continue to report on and comment on these successes, with some outlets even uncritically citing Russian propaganda sources

A Facebook post says the following:

Our media outlets are not allowed to comment on the Russian military successes in the Donbas, they will anger the Fortress and Rada, bloody jerks and dunces.

This creates the false impression that our media outlets are not allowed to comment on Russian military successes in the Donbas, due to possible punishment by the “Fortress” (a slang term for the US embassy) and “Rada” (most likely Radmila Shekerinska, Deputy Secretary General of NATO). They are reportedly so influential that the media self-censors out of fear.

This claim is false. As the first point, we reference the clip released by Sloboden Pechat on the 27th of December 2023, titled “Andonovic: Russia has seized control of the strategically crucial gateway to Donetsk,” in which journalist Dejan Andonovic discussed the fighting in Donbas.

Starting at around the seventh minute of the clip, Andonovic says (quoted and translated directly without corrections):

Russia is making some progress now. We saw this morning that Marinka, a city in the southern part of Donetsk, it seems to me, is located in a strategically important place, more than two years defended by Ukrainian forces, but the Russians conquered it this morning, which is considered a good, serious strategic blow to the Ukrainian defense forces.

Somewhere around the eighth minute of the video, Andonovic adds:

The Russians have captured, again I say, a good, a very important strategic stronghold, which probably enters the final stage of the complete secession of Donetsk, or the Donbas, or Luhansk and Donetsk, a complete conquest by Russia.

It is not a dry report which states this happened here and that happened there, but rather an analysis, commentary, and expression of personal opinion, and according to Andonovic, the Russians have achieved an important success in the Donbas, which, probably, would have contributed to their complete victory in the region. Why wasn’t Andonovic censored for this by “Rada” and the “Fortress?”

If anyone insists on a newer example, here’s a clip from Sloboden Pechat from February 7, 2025.

Andonovic, once again, at about the second minute of the video says:

Russia is making progress on the frontlines. It manages to seize those points that are fixed, and I wouldn’t go any further on the matter. The Donetsk Oblast is before that Chasiv Yar and once it falls, everything officially falls. Practically speaking, after Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, Donetsk is also falling

Andonovic goes a step further than the previous clip not only commenting on Russian successes and predicting the complete occupation of Donbas, but also forecasting the capture of other Ukrainian regions. How did it get past the censorship of “Rada” and the “Fortress?”

It is clear that they are not censoring our media outlets, which is impossible because freedom of speech and public information is guaranteed by Article 16 of our Constitution. Now, some might think that it is merely “a dead letter,” but we’ve already proven that’s not the case.

Our argument is that some of our media outlets even fanatically report on Russian military successes or perhaps uncritically use Russian sources, which are known for propaganda.

An example of such a post can be found on A1on.mk, under the title “Russian forces are intensively advancing through the Donetsk region.” In doing so, A1on.mk did not refer to relevant world agencies such as Reuters or others, but to some Russian Telegram channel Operation Z. So how is that possible if our media is controlled by “Rada” and the “Fortress?”

A1on.mk further cited that channel in another post, which is filled with Russian propaganda narratives. It claims that Russian forces ‘liberated’ settlements throughout the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), but this entity is not internationally recognized. In reality, it represents a Russian occupation of settlements across Ukraine, as defined under international law and UN resolutions ES-11/1 and ES-11/4.

It must also be said that Russia to this day has no control over the entire Donetsk Oblast, for example, over cities such as Slavyansk, Kramatorsk, etc., although it has formally annexed it in its entirety (on paper).

“That’s the situation in Donbas. Moving further through Ukraine, Russia does not have full control over either the Zaporizhzhia or Kherson Oblast. On November 11, 2022, it lost Kherson, the only regional center it had captured during the full-scale invasion. From February to May 2022, Russia was defeated in the battles for Kyiv and Kharkiv, and on April 14, 2022, its pride of the Black Sea Fleet, the cruiser Moskva, was sunk.

Ukraine has long harbored a grudge against Russia, particularly towards Belgorod, but also Moscow. On May 3, 2023, the Kremlin itself was targeted by a drone, with the farthest strike reaching Tatarstan, 1,200 km away.

In August 2024, the Ukrainians even occupied part of the Kursk Oblast, the first foreign military incursion into Russia since 1941 and a rare instance of a non-nuclear state occupying the territory of a nuclear state, which to this day has not been able to repel them.

Finally, we conclude that we have no media censorship, neither by “Rada” nor by the “Fortress.” The post is slanderous and manipulative, so it’s completely justified and not censorship if we assess it as untrue.

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