President Petro Poroshenko announced closing his official pages in Russian social networks Odnoklassniki and VKontakte and urged Ukrainians to follow his example. "Hybrid war requires adequate responses to challenges, so my team had used the pages in some Russian social networks to influence opponents and for counterpropaganda. However, the massive cyberattacks of the Russian Federation around the world, in particular the recent interference in the election campaign in France, indicate that it's time to act more resolutely," Poroshenko wrote on his pages in Odnoklassniki and VKontakte.
"Ukrainian Internet providers should cease to provide access to the VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Yandex and other Russian web services. All the official presidential pages on these services will be closed. I call on all my compatriots to immediately withdraw from the Russian server for security reasons," Poroshenko went on.
Ukraine has imposed sanctions for a period of three years against a number of Russian media organizers, including TV companies TV Center, RBC, NTV Plus, Zvezda, TNT, Moscow Media, Rossiya Segodnya, REN TV, and social networks.