The spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Oleh Nikolenko demands from the German TV channel ZDF an official explanation of its reporter's trip to the temporarily occupied Mariupol of the Donetsk Region.
He wrote about this on the social network X.
“Distorting reality is not journalism. Moreover, ZDF Moscow bureau chief’s visit to occupied Mariupol without Ukraine's consent violated Ukrainian legislation. We call on ZDF to provide an official explanation. Violating Ukraine’s laws may impact media’s further work in Ukraine," Nikolenko emphasized.
The broadcast of the report on the YouTube channel took place on January 29.
On January 1, the German publication Bild cited the opinions of experts regarding the said report: "In the recent report "Unterwegs in Mariupol", ZDF correspondent Armin Coerper told russian lies instead of stating the obvious facts."
It is noted that the fact that russia invaded Ukraine on a full-scale almost two years ago and wanted to completely conquer it was not mentioned in the program. Instead, russia was praised for making the city "functioning" again.
The publication quotes the reporter: "The city is working, there is electricity, heating, hot water, Internet, Wi-Fi, all this is there. People live their lives here. People live their lives here, russia invests a lot of money in it."
In addition, it is said that one of the theaters in Mariupol, which is under russian occupation, can now stage plays in russian again: "Of course, these are also reasons for people to stay here, if they can continue to speak their language and work in their language."
At the same time, what remains unmentioned is what is being said about the Drama Theater, where about 600 Ukrainian women and children took refuge at the beginning of the war and were killed there when the building was deliberately bombed and completely destroyed by russian troops on March 16, 2022. In total, russia is estimated to have killed tens of thousands of people in Mariupol.
The publication cites a report in X by an expert on Eastern European issues, Serhii Sumlennyi from the European Resilience Initiative Center: "ZDF seriously says that before the russian occupation, it was forbidden to play in the russian language in the theater, and that is why many people are happy that russia occupied the city."
Historian Franziska Davies was appalled in X: "This program from Mariupol on ZDF was nothing more than a trivialization of the russian genocide in Ukraine by the Moscow correspondent (!!) Armin Coerper."
ZDF responded to the accusations and said in a comment under the TouTube video that it "takes the criticism seriously" while admitting no wrongdoing.
"In its reporting from Ukraine, ZDF left no doubt that Mariupol is a territory illegally occupied by russia, as well as who is the aggressor and the victim in this war," ZDF says.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in September 2023, a Chinese singer performed "Katyusha" at the ruins of the Drama Theater in occupied Mariupol. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine called for an explanation of the purpose of the stay of Chinese citizens in captured Mariupol, as well as the way they got to the occupied Ukrainian city.
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