A senior US diplomat in charge of countering disinformation says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should be more open about revealing information about the state of the war in Ukraine, Politico reported.
His comments came amid increased Russian attacks on the front and waning international focus on the war, the paper said. The $60 billion in military aid that Joe Biden requested for Kiev remains blocked in Congress.
James Rubin, who directs the Center for Global Engagement at the US State Department, said that “sometimes the Ukrainian government opposes freedom of information that seems normal to us.
In particular, the American diplomat refers to the coverage of what is happening on the front by military reporters. While Ukrainian and Western journalists have demanded greater access to the front lines, authorities in Kyiv have restricted reporting from sensitive areas of the conflict. According to James Rubin, if Ukraine wants to be a democracy, it must allow the free reporting of the truth from the front.
James Rubin pointed out that there should be freedom of speech, even if sometimes the news coming from the front is bad. He added that although the country is “moving in the right direction”, it is still not a “fully developed democracy”.