May 11, 2024, 2:59 p.m.
(Photo: Intent)
The former head of the Center for Strategic Communications of the Southern Defense Forces , Natalia Humeniuk, has been appointed to a position in the communications unit of the Southern Operational Command.
This was reported by MP Oleksiy Honcharenko.
Intent asked Natalia Humeniuk for a comment, but has not yet received a response. Yesterday, when asked by an Intent journalist, Natalia Humeniuk said that she was an officer of the Strategic Communications Department of the General Staff.
CORRECTED. Instead, the current head of the Center for Strategic Communications of the Southern Defense Forces, Dmytro Pletenchuk, told Int that Natalia Humeniuk may head one of the units in the operational command, but he cannot confirm the appointment for sure.
17:16. Natalia Gumenyuk, in turn, noted that she did not disseminate such information, nor did any official source.
"I did not disseminate such information. Neither did any official source," she emphasized.
Earlier, after numerous complaints from journalists, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine decided to dismiss Natalia Humeniuk from the post of head of the Center for Strategic Communications of the Southern Defense Forces. This happened after a number of Ukrainian and foreign media outlets accused Humeniuk of incompetence and unreasonable obstruction of the media.
In particular, journalists and civic activists from the Mediarukh association appealed to the command of the armed forces, the leadership of the Ministry of Defense, and the Chief of the General Staff to remove Natalia Humeniuk from the leadership of the communications department of the Southern Operational Command. Media representatives insisted that she was restricting the work of journalists.
"The journalists managed to record Russia's war crimes, mostly bypassing the restrictions imposed in Ms. Humeniuk's area of responsibility, not with her assistance. The most egregious case was the ban on entering flooded towns and villages in the Kherson region on the day of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant explosion - the world media was flooded with references to the testimony of Russian "military commanders", as there was almost no information from us. Later, Ms. Humeniuk forbade us to record the suffering of Ukrainians in some villages where water disappeared due to the hydroelectric power plant explosion and to film the bottom of the reservoir, which had dried up," the media outlet said in a statement.
Later, Natalia Gumenyuk commented on her dismissal to Int.
"I am a military man. I carry out orders and duties within my competence. As of today, my secondment to the Tavria operational group of troops has been completed as part of the rotation," she said.
Кирило Бойко