Natalia Humenyuk commented on the mediaʼs call to remove her from the leadership of the communications department of the Operational Command "South".
She stated on Radio Svoboda that the journalists allegedly did not provide any evidence of obstruction of their work, and the press center of the Southern Defense Forces did not violate any command orders.
"The information currently being circulated about the failure to cover the consequences of the Kakhovka HPP tragedy is an absolute lie. We processed more than 800 requests within one week in a simplified manner," Humenyuk said, but added that this was done "in view of the security of operations."
She also noted that she acted in accordance with order No. 73 from the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. In March 2023, the Ministry of Defense amended this order. It regulates the work of journalists during martial law in Ukraine. In particular, the rules for obtaining accreditation by journalists have changed and special zones for media representatives have been introduced. Representatives of Mediarukh stated that most of their proposals were not taken into account.
- On April 16, Ukrainian media persons asked the military leadership to replace the head of the press center of the Southern Defense Forces Natalia Humenyuk with a "more competent" one and to prevent her from communicating.
- More than 70 journalists, publications and organizations signed up to these demands. In the statement, they claim that Humenyuk forbids the coverage of Russian war crimes in the Kherson region and does not provide access to the military. The most egregious case in the statement was the ban on entering the flooded towns and villages in the Kherson region on the day of the explosion of the Kakhovka HPP. Then the world media were flooded with references to the testimony of Russian "warriors", because there was almost no information from Ukrainian journalists.