What do the "red zones" marked by the Ukrainian army mean: Journalists are not allowed to work there

The operational headquarters of the Ukrainian army in the east and south were the first to mark all settlements along the front line and the Ukrainian border as "red" zones. This means that journalists are not allowed to work in them.

In addition to the "red" zone, there is also a "yellow zone" in which journalists can move only when accompanied by an officer responsible for the media. Only in "green zones" reporting is free.

In addition, Ukraine intends to review the accreditations it has granted to journalists over the past year. In the future, journalists covering the war will have to renew their accreditation every six months.

Withdrawal of accreditation

Natalia Humenyuk, a spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Defense Forces in the south, said the new rules were not introduced to interfere with journalists' work, but to ensure "orderly work taking into account the security situation and the needs of the army." The army promised to review the division into zones every week.

Ilja Jevlaš, spokesman for the army group "Horticja", which is responsible for the greater part of the Donbas front, said that journalists are currently prohibited from working in Bahmut, and in Kostjantinivka, twenty kilometers away, they can only move with a military escort.

Jevlaš advises journalists to inquire into which zone the place they want to go falls into.

Violation of these rules can be punished by the military by revocation of accreditation. This happened in November to the journalists of the American stations CNN and Sky News, as well as the Ukrainian television stations Suspilna and Hromadska. They were reporting from Kherson, which had just been liberated, without the permission of the military authorities. After protests by international media organizations, their work permit was returned.

Criticism in the country and abroad

The media organization Mediarush, which brings together Ukrainian media, journalists and social organizations, believes that the division into zones is "too harsh a restriction" and demands that the army immediately "normalize access to reporting on combat operations".

Both the Ukrainian National Association of Journalists and the International Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) are demanding that the Ukrainian authorities review the rules. Representatives of the organization "Reporters without Borders" also criticized.

"We believe that the new rules are exaggerated, because they practically make reporting from the front impossible," says Christian Mir, the organization's first man.

"Reporters Without Borders" requests the Ukrainian government to provide the possibility for journalists to continue reporting on the war first-hand.

Can the new rules be enforced?

It is possible that the new rules cannot be fully implemented. At least that's what members of the Ukrainian army who wish to remain anonymous think. For example, in the "yellow zone" of Kherson and Nikolaev, the army simply does not have a sufficient number of officers in charge of public relations, who would accompany journalists on assignment. The media there, according to those testimonies, work as usual.

Natalija Humenjuk says that journalists, if a special request is approved, can still report from the southern "red zone". And Ilja Jevlaš claims that journalists can "without special changes" move through the zone controlled by the army.

However, media representatives complain that this only applies to selected media. Fourteen Ukrainian media that are active as portals or television stations in reporting from the front line published a joint statement about it.

It says there is a list of media that the authorities continue to grant access to and report on in red zones and combat zones.

Communication control?

Associates of the media service of several units and the general staff confirmed that the new rules came from the president's office, noting that they want there to control communication between the army and the media, especially when it comes to foreign journalists.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has asked domestic journalists to limit themselves: "Strategic military plans can only be published by three people - the president, the minister of defense and the army commander-in-chief. All others can only quote. The army's military plans must never be discussed publicly." , Deputy Minister of Defense Hana Maljar told Ukrainian journalists.

Anatoli Kosel's example shows that those who do not follow such instructions bear the consequences. The Ukrainian battalion commander told the Washington Post that his unit had heavy losses and added that the Ukrainian counteroffensive was questionable due to insufficient experience of recruits and a lack of weapons.

After the interview was published, Kosel was transferred to a training center, because he was allegedly not allowed to talk to journalists.

"We have a state of war in force and theoretically there should be censors in all media. The same should be the case with members of the military on the battlefield," said Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko about the case.

DW also asked Mihajlo Podoljak, an adviser in the president's cabinet, for a comment, but so far there has been no response.