KYIV, Feb 2 – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday imposed devastating sanctions on three Ukrainian television channels controlled by pro-Russian interests and disseminating Russian propaganda disguised as independent commentary.

The channels, including ZIK, 112-Ukrayina and NewsOne, are affiliated with Viktor Medvedchuk, the leader of a Ukrainian pro-Russian opposition party and a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The sanctions also target Taras Kozak, a Ukrainian lawmaker and a close confidant of Medvedchuk who technically owns the channels.

The move is the boldest step yet by Zelenskiy to stop the massive pro-Russian propaganda machine that has been undermining social fabric in Ukraine for more than two years by waging an information war while also fighting Russia-supported forces in Donbas.

“Huge, positive political development in Ukraine,” Anders Aslund, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington, said on Tuesday. “Enemy propaganda should not be allowed in a war.”

The move comes three weeks after the U.S. has imposed its own crippling sanctions against several individuals and media assets affiliated with Andriy Derkach, a Ukrainian lawmaker who is viewed in the U.S. as a Russian security agent. Derkach is under U.S. sanctions since September 2020.

Zelenskiy imposed the sanctions after the measures had been approved by the National Security and Defense Council, a 19-member strategic policy body under the President. Oleksiy Danylov, the secretary of NSDC, said 17 members voted in favor of the measures, while one abstained and one was absent.

The sanctions effectively froze bank accounts of all the television channels, cancelled their licenses to broadcast and used other punitive measures that effectively shut them down. Most of regional re-broadcasters have already started to pull them off the air.

There were calls made in Ukraine that the television channels must also be pulled off YouTube, a U.S. video hosting service owned by Google. Medvedchuk is on the list of U.S. sanctions since March 2014 for his role in occupation and annexation of Crimea.

“Medvedchuk appears to be the actual ultimate beneficiary owner of these three pro-Russian television channels,” Aslund said. “Since he was sanctioned by the US Treasury in March 2014, YouTube should not be allowed to keep them open.”

Medvedchuk has managed to acquire NewsOne and 112-Ukrayina in late 2018, while officially closing the deal to acquire ZIK in early 2019.

All three channels broadcast news and political talk shows and are estimated to cost $20 million/month to operate, suggesting that money has been coming from other sources, presumably from Russia.

Medvedchuk’s party, known as the Opposition Platform-For Life, has benefited tremendously from airtime at the channels as its popularity has soared to the No. 1 spot in November 2020 and stays there, while the rating of Zelenskiy’s own party has collapsed.

OPFL maintained its top spot with 20.7% support in the poll released by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) on January 26. Former President Petro Poroshenko’s European Solidarity was the second with 15.3% support, followed by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna (12.6%), and Zelenskiy’s Servant of the People party at 11.2%. (tl/ez)