Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Sunday that the country would ban 11 political parties linked to Russia, The Washington Post reports.
Zelensky in a speech said that the country’s National Security and Defense Council decided to suspend the parties’ activities.
“Given the full-scale war waged by the Russian Federation and the ties of some political structures with this state, any activity of a number of political parties during the martial law is suspended,” Zelensky said.
He added that the country’s Justice Ministry would “immediately take comprehensive measures to ban the activities of these political parties in the prescribed manner.”
“Any activity of politicians aimed at splitting or collaborating will not succeed,” he said. “But it will get a tough response.”
Channels nationalized:
Zelensky during his speech also announced that the country would nationalize privately-owned TV channels.
Zelensky said he signed an order “combining all national TV channels, the program content of which consists mainly of information and/or information-analytical programs, [into] a single information platform of strategic communication” to be called “United News.”
Zelensky said the measure was necessary to combat Russian misinformation and “tell the truth about the war.”
Russian crackdown:
The Kremlin has led its own crackdown on opposition and information.
The Russian government, which has been frequently accused of killing or trying to assassinate critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin, earlier this month announced that Russians could face up to 15 years in prison for spreading what the government deems information about its invasion of Ukraine.
The government has also cracked down on any opposition protests.
The European Commission said last week that more than 14,000 Russian citizens have been detained in over 140 cities for protesting the invasion.
“The state apparatus continues its oppression against the domestic opposition, against the domestic peace-loving population, denying them their basic rights and freedoms,” said Commission spokesman Daniel Ferrie.
