Crimean journalist publicly calls for changing Ukraine's borders

The director of the Institute of Media Communications of the occupying Crimean Vernadsky University is suspected of justifying armed aggression against Ukraine and inciting national hatred.

This was reported by the press service of the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol.

The report says that under the procedural guidance of the autonomy's prosecutor's office, the director of the Institute of Media Communications, Media Technologies and Design of the occupying Vernadsky Crimean Federal University, who justified armed aggression against Ukraine and called for a change in the borders of its territory, was served with a notice of suspicion.

It is noted that his actions are qualified as public calls for actions to change the boundaries of the territory and state border of Ukraine (Part 1, 2 of Article 110 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), collaboration (Part 6 of Article 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), intentional actions aimed at inciting national hatred (Part 1 of Article 161 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and justification of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine committed with the use of the media (Part 3 of Article 436-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

Thus, the investigation established that in 2022-2023, the suspect, heading one of the departments of the occupation Vernadsky University and being a member of the board of the Crimean branch of Russian journalists, hosted an author's program on the propaganda TV channel Millet. In it, the "correspondent" systematically broadcast the narratives of the aggressor state, supporting the occupation of the Crimean peninsula and other regions of Ukraine. In particular, he emphasized the "historical belonging" of the temporarily occupied territories to the Russian Federation, positively assessed "their liberation during the Armed Forces Operation" and argued that "Ukraine as a state should not exist in the future." In several episodes, the suspect emphasized that in fact, Russia is "fighting against collective Europe under the yellow and blue banners" and shifted the responsibility for the war against Ukraine and the deaths to the United States. At the same time, he called on Crimeans to obtain Russian passports, and suggested that those who support the Ukrainian Armed Forces should be "taken to the Ukrainian military commissariat." The suspect faces up to 12 years in prison for these actions.

The pre-trial investigation is carried out by the Main Department of the National Police in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol.