OREANDA-NEWS. Yulia Mendel, a press secretary for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said that the sanctions against the TV channels 112. Ukraine, NewsOne and ZIK have nothing to do with an attack on freedom of speech, she claims that their funding from Russia has been confirmed.

As Mendel wrote on her Facebook page: "The blocking of TV channels of the so-called pool of Viktor Medvedchuk, which are fictitiously registered in the name of his colleague Taras Kozak, has nothing to do with an attack on freedom of speech, which is an undoubted value in Ukraine. These TV channels have long forgotten that such journalistic standards, fact-checking or coverage of at least two points of view. Instead, they turned into a propaganda tool that is used in the interests of the aggressor state that violated the sovereignty and state borders of Ukraine. Funding for these channels from Russia has already been confirmed. " At the same time, the presidential press secretary did not provide any evidence confirming the financing of the channels from the Russian Federation.

Mendel added that the channels were blocked in order to protect national security.

Relations between Moscow and Kiev have deteriorated against the background of the situation in Donbass. The Ukrainian authorities have previously repeatedly accused Russia of interfering in the country's internal affairs. In January 2015, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a statement in which the Russian Federation is called an "aggressor country". Russia denies the accusations of the Ukrainian side and calls them unacceptable. Moscow has repeatedly stated that it is not a party to the internal Ukrainian conflict and is interested in Kiev overcoming the political and economic crisis.