Kharkiv: A man inspects a crater of a rocket launched by the Russian forces at night in the center of Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, March 27, 2022. AP/PTI Photo
Berlin, March 27 (AP) Russian authorities have blocked the website of German newspaper Bild, part of their efforts to control the message on Ukraine.
Communications and media regulator Roskomnadzor said Sunday it blocked Bild's website at prosecutors' request.
Instagram and Facebook were already blocked in Russia after Roskomnadzor said they were being used to call for violence against Russian soldiers.
Russian authorities also have shut access to foreign media websites, including BBC, European news network Euronews, the US government-funded Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and Latvia-based website Meduza.
Bild says it has been putting Russian-language reports on Russia's war in Ukraine and its slide toward totalitarian dictatorship on its website, and parts of its live video broadcasts have been subtitled in Russian. It noted that it also has a Russian-language Telegram channel.
Bild editor-in-chief Johannes Boie said the decision to block its website in Russia confirms us in our journalistic work for democracy, freedom and human rights.
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Washington: The top-ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has urged US President Joe Biden to stay on script as he deals with Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Senator James Risch of Idaho's comments criticizing the president came a day after Biden asserted at the end of a major address in Poland that Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot remain in power .
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other administration officials on Sunday sought to walk back Biden's remarks, saying that Biden's was not calling for regime change.
Risch, however, suggested Biden needs to be more careful with his words on the international stage.
Please Mr President, stay on script, Risch said in an appearance Sunday on CNN's State of the Union .
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Kyiv: Ukraine's military intelligence chief says that Russia could try to break Ukraine in two.
Kyrylo Budanov said in remarks released by the Defence Ministry on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has realised he can't swallow the entire country and would likely try to split the country under the Korean scenario . That's a reference to the decades-old division between North and South Korea.
Budanov said that the occupiers will try to pull the occupied territories into a single quasi-state structure and pit it against independent Ukraine . He pointed to Russian attempts to set up parallel government structures in occupied cities and to bar people from using the Ukrainian currency, the hryvnia.
Budanov predicted that Ukrainian resistance will grow into a total guerrilla warfare, derailing Russia's attempts.
