The shelling of Channel 5: what they are saying on social media

After the night shelling, people on social media support Channel 5 and demand the return of digital broadcasting for illegally disconnected TV channels.

“Channel 5 was damaged as a result of incoming flights tonight. Before that, the house of Channel 5 director Volodymyr Mzhelsky was completely destroyed by incoming Russian missiles. Before that, the authorities groundlessly turned off Channel 5 from the national airwaves. Despite the crazy trials that the Channel 5 team is currently going through, it continues its work! Thank you for this!”, writes Ukrainian Armed Forces officer, Kyiv City Council deputy Oleksandr Pohrebysky.

Host and journalist Vitaliy Portnikov also reacted to the shelling.

“In the studio of Channel 5, before the start of the Great War, my program “Political Club” and our program “Saturday Political Club” with Maria Gurska were recorded, which were broadcast on Espresso: colleagues helped maintain the proper level of political discussion in a situation when a large part of society had lost the ability to think critically and believed that the existential problems of the country and the Ukrainian people would be solved simply by not paying attention to them. And I was proud to be broadcasting from the studio of the Orange Revolution channel. When our warnings became a reality, Channel 5, along with Espresso and Pryami, were disconnected from digital broadcasting, although this, as we see, does not contribute to solving the country’s existential problems, but instead continues to contribute to the depreciation of critical thinking skills. And where there is no critical thinking, there is panic and collapse. And my colleagues and I have been simply building a dam for decades so that it does not burst. Now the enemy has decided to interfere with the work of our colleagues. But also “He won’t succeed. Because real Ukrainian journalists know how to hold back. Our dam will hold,” Portnikov emphasizes.

People’s Deputy Iryna Gerashchenko also called on the Ukrainian authorities to return digital broadcasting to three TV channels illegally disconnected in 2022: “During the massive attack on Kyiv, the editorial office of Channel 5 was damaged. I just spoke with colleagues, the team is working to restore broadcasting, clean up glass and broken furniture, and repair equipment. Thank God, everyone is alive. But there are dead and wounded in Kyiv. My sincere condolences to all the families and teams affected by today’s attack. Russia in its current form has no right to exist. I appeal to the Ukrainian authorities – it is time to return the Ukrainian TV channels that have been thrown out of the digital broadcasting system and that the enemy is attacking.”

In addition, the Fifth President Petro Poroshenko commented on the situation on Facebook. He noted that “Channel 5” was, is and will be.

“I’ve been there more than once. And tonight, it was destroyed by an enemy strike (the Channel 5 studio – ed.). At one point, from one to four in the morning, everything was flying: a ballistic missile and more than thirty shaheeds. The Russians hit the building of the five, destroying part of the equipment. But, fortunately, the team was not injured. Although the emergency group was on site at that time and was broadcasting the night broadcast, they went to the shelter in time. With this massive strike, Russia recognized the channel’s merits in the information war against the aggressor. And, unfortunately, this is the second powerful strike on the channel during the invasion. As unfortunate as it is, the first strike on it was inflicted by the Ukrainian authorities, when in the spring of 2022 they first did not allow the telethon, and then illegally removed it from the air. But the channel was, is and will be!”, Poroshenko wrote.

It was previously reported that after the massive nighttime attack on Kyiv on Thursday, July 10, Channel 5 has already resumed broadcasting, despite significant damage to the studio .

As a reminder, on the night of Thursday, July 10, Russia launched a combined strike on Kyiv. During the airstrike, the use of kamikaze drones and various types of missiles was recorded in the city. As a result of the enemy strikes, two people were killed and dozens were injured.

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