Voice of Europe is accused of orchestrating an international propaganda campaign to destabilize Ukraine in support of Russia’s aggression.
Its site is full of opinion pieces that portray Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in a negative light, while hinting that Ukraine’s leadership is to blame for prolonging the war with Russia.
“The propaganda has repeatedly and consistently targeted European political parties,” the EU said, “...as well as targeting civil society, asylum seekers, Russian ethnic minorities, gender minorities, and the functioning of democratic institutions in the EU and its member states.”
Specifically, Voice of Europe has criticized Zelensky’s efforts to rally international support for peace talks that would see Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory returned to Ukraine, as well as suggesting that the West is to blame for the collapse of peace talks altogether.
Voice of Europe also accused Zelensky of introducing “a Nazi narrative of eternal war with Russia into state ideology,” a propaganda line that mirrors the narrative of Russian president Vladimir Putin when he ordered his troops to invade more than two years ago.
Artem Pavlovich Marchevskyi, a citizen of Ukraine and Israel, was similarly blacklisted by both the EU and the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs for his role as the site’s leader.
“As a concealed head of Voice of Europe, [Marchevskyi] has played an instrumental role in disseminating concerted disinformation and biased narratives aimed at undermining credibility and public image of Ukraine and its efforts to defend itself against Russia’s war of aggression,” the EU said.
He is currently living in exile in Slovakia, Reuters reported.
Last to be named is Viktor Medvedchuk, a former Ukrainian politician who was arrested in 2022 for crimes related to betraying Ukraine to Russia. Medvedchuk is known for having close personal ties to Putin and his regime.
He was eventually handed over to Russia in an exchange for Ukrainian prisoners of war and was later stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship.
Now in exile from his former homeland, Medvedchuk is accused of using Marchevskyi’s media reach to “disseminate pro-Russian propaganda in Ukraine and beyond.”
Czechia, meanwhile, accused Medvedchuk of using Voice of Europe as a “media platform to run a Russian influence operation. The aim of this operation is to undermine the territorial integrity, sovereignty and freedom of Ukraine.”
Medvedchuk, Marchevskyi, and Voice of Europe could not be reached for comment.
Voice of Europe did say on its website, however, that it “categorically rejected” the EU sanctions and posted “VOICE OF EUROPE IS GOING TO BE BLOCKED due to pressure from European authorities on freedom of speech and attempts to hide the truth about the real situation in Europe” above all its articles.
