French Journalist: European Channels Unwilling to Report Ukrainian Army’s Shelling of Civilians

Russia’s special operation to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine is underway, with the Kremlin making it clear that Moscow will begin negotiations with Kiev at any moment, as soon as the Ukrainian military lays down their arms.

French journalist Christelle Neant has told Sputnik that European news networks refuse to use her reports about Kiev’s forces shelling civilians in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region.

Neant is on the blacklist of the Ukrainian website Mirotvorets (Peacekeeper), which was launched in 2014 to publish personal data of those who allegedly pose a threat to Ukraine’s national security.

When asked about whether European broadcasters accept her materials on the situation in the region, she said that “certainly they don’t”, adding that news channels know that she can “always ask Donbass civilians about who had launched strikes on them”.

“And of course, those broadcasters are unwilling to report that it was the Ukrainian Army which is shelling the civilians. The news channels don’t want to know it and they are reluctant to publish it”, Neant pointed out, arguing that there is censorship on major European channels.

She spoke a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the beginning of a special operation in Ukraine following a request from the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics for assistance in the wake of the Ukrainian Army’s intensifying shelling of the republics.

The president stressed that the goal is “to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine, as well as bring to trial those who perpetrated numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including against citizens of the Russian Federation”. The Russian Defence Ministry, for its part, said that precision weapons are being used to neutralise Ukrainian military infrastructure and air forces, stressing there is no threat to the civilian population.

Following an appeal from the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, Moscow recognised their independence and ratified friendship and cooperation treaties with them on Monday, promising to protect the people of Donbass against any threats.