Ukraine-Russia war latest: Russia vows retaliation over EU blocking state media on Telegram amid Azerbaijan crash
Russia vowed retaliation after the EU reportedly blocked its state media channels on Telegram in several countries. The disruption came as Moscow faced mounting pressure over the Azerbaijan plane crash in Kazakhstan, which killed 38 people.
The Telegram channels of Ria Novosti, Rossiya 1, Pervyi Kanal, NTV television, Izvestia, and Rossiyskaya Gazeta were inaccessible in France, Belgium, Poland, Greece, the Netherlands, and Italy on Sunday, reports said. Neither Telegram nor EU officials clarified the cause of the disruption.
Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, condemned the move as part of an effort to silence dissenting voices. “The systematic cleansing of all undesirable sources of information from the information space continues,” she said. Moscow has also called the disruption an “act of censorship”.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev accused Russian elements of trying to obscure the crash’s cause, alleging the plane was damaged by gunfire in Russian airspace before crashing near Aktau.
Russian president Vladimir Putin expressed condolences over the crash, but avoided admitting responsibility for the incident.
