Freedom TV Journalist Tells PACE About Russian Missile Strikes on His Media

Oleh Borisov, journalist of Freedom TV channel, spoke at a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. In his speech, he told about how Russian invaders have already twice fired missiles at the building of his media.

The Gaze reports on this with reference to Borisov's speech in PACE.

‘Good afternoon. Thank you for this opportunity to speak. I am a journalist for the Freedom TV channel. It is a Ukrainian international broadcasting TV channel. On the way to Strasbourg, I got to know that a Russian ballistic missile hit our TV studio in Kyiv. You can see the consequences on the screen. The studio, newsroom, office and communications were completely destroyed. We are now working from a backup studio to continue broadcasting,’ Borisov began his speech.

According to him, this is the second time that Russia has attacked the Freedom TV office, and the Russian Ministry of Defence claims that it is attacking a military facility. However, the TV presenter says, it is obvious that there is no military facility there.

’Putin and his troops are doing everything to destroy the truth, to destroy the evidence of his crimes. At the beginning of the war, a missile hit a TV tower in Kyiv. In Kharkiv, a Russian missile destroyed a TV tower. Russian troops are taking journalists prisoner. Putin is afraid of the truth. And we, Ukrainian journalists, voice this truth. Why did Putin attack the Freedom TV channel? Because we have several editorial offices that write news in different languages. We speak Russian, we speak Ukrainian, we speak English, we speak Spanish. And Putin does not like this. Russian propaganda is doing everything to broadcast its lies in Europe. We are the counter-propaganda. The photo on the screen is proof of another Russian crime. The photo on the screen is a call to the European Union to continue supporting Ukraine and help us tell all European countries the truth about this war. The truth that will win. Because we, Ukrainian journalists, believe in it. Thank you for the opportunity to tell you about the attack on my TV channel and the consequences. Thank you for being on the side of Ukraine. Glory to Ukraine,’ said Oleh Borisov.

As The Gaze reported earlier, on the night of April 5-6, a Russian ballistic missile strike on Kyiv caused significant destruction to a building housing the editorial offices of Ukraine's International Broadcasting Multimedia Platform of Ukraine (IBMPU), which includes Freedom TV channel, Dom, UATV English, UATV Español, UATV Arabic, UATV Português, along with digital editorial offices and service departments.

These facilities had been relocated there following a previous attack on 12 February.