If approved, the bill will become part of the existing “antiterrorism laws” and will entail legal punishment for the publication in the media or on social networks of information pertaining to the deployment of the Ukrainian armed forces, their combat readiness, equipment, etc.
Violation of any of these provisions will be punishable by up to four years behind bars. If such information is spread by a government official or via a media outlet, this will carry a jail sentence of up to six years.
“This will send us all back to the times of [former President Viktor] Yanukovych and even [Josef] Stalin!” fumed MP Olga Chervakova from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc.
“As a member of the biggest pro-government faction in parliament, I will do my best to prevent this primitive piece of legislative thought from ever being adopted,” she added.
On Friday the Verhovna Rada approved a draft law which conditionally bans the use of mobile phones by Ukrainian military personnel deployed in the Donbass war zone.
