The German media Deutsche Welle asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba to respond to the criticism of the spokesman of the ministry Oleh Nikolenko. He accused the broadcaster of spreading Kremlin propaganda.
An official representative of DW reported this in a comment to European Pravda.
The spokesman of the broadcasterʼs general directorate, Christoph Yumpelt, said that DW "applied to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, with a demand to deal with the situation regarding Oleh Nikolenkoʼs private post on Facebook."
"We strongly deny the baseless accusations. Our coverage of the war of aggression against Ukraine is subject to strict professional criteria appropriate to this serious situation. We also strongly reject the accusations of manipulation of facts and alleged dissemination of propaganda," Yumpelt said.
He also noted that Nikolenko probably compared Deutsche Welle to the Russian propaganda media company Russia Today for "intimidation", stressing that DW conducts "independent and objective work".
"When an employee of the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs starts a campaign aimed at discrediting any mass media, distorting the facts about its real work, for whatever purpose, we expect that measures will be taken," the publicationʼs comment reads.
- On August 17, Nikolenko called on the German government to respond to the promotion of Kremlin propaganda narratives by the Russian service of the German media company Deutsche Welle. Nikolenko published screenshots of Deutsche Welle articles with manipulative statements and narratives of Russian politicians and propagandists. In one of the publications there was a call to recognize "Ukraine as a terrorist state."