“Unwanted” in Kyiv: Zelensky government blocks junge Welt website

Photo: Instead of the junge Welt website, readers in Ukraine now only see this blocking notice imposed under martial law.

By Susann Witt-Stahl. junge Welt, 27 August 2025. Translated by Helmut-Harry Loewen.*

Since the beginning of this week, users in Ukraine have been unable to access the junge Welt website. “In accordance with the Law of Ukraine ‘On Electronic Communications’ and Decree No. 64/2022 of the President of Ukraine dated February 24, 2022, on the imposition of martial law in Ukraine, this Internet resource has been blocked,” reads the message that appears when entering the URL jungewelt.de. However, the Ukrainian authorities had already classified jW as “undesirable” on 12 August 2025, and added it to their “register of blocked websites.” In Ukraine, the National Security and Defence Council and the National Communications Centre, a department of the Special Communications Service consisting largely of military personnel, can impose such bans, in some cases based on information supplied by the domestic security-intelligence service SBU. Currently, around 4,600 websites are blocked, mainly Russian and Belarusian media, but also some Western European outlets, such as the left-wing portal Iskra from Greece.

The Zelensky government effectively forced the press into line at the beginning of the escalation of the Ukraine conflict. The last opposition media had already been banned in 2021. Now, the Ukrainian censorship and surveillance apparatus apparently also wants to shut down the already scarce critical reporting from Germany and other EU countries – for example, on the growing intertwining of the fascist Azov military with NATO's military-industrial complex and the brutal forced military recruitment. “Those who will not tolerate it resort to network blockades,” comments Sebastian Carlens, head of the publishing house Verlag 8. Mai, on the blocking of the jW website. “Apparently, freedom of the press in the European Union, which is already restricted and under constant attack, is still too broad for Ukraine, which aspires to EU membership.” A few weeks ago, jW was already confronted with unhinged accusations from the Azov lobby in the United States. The jW editorial team was asked to “change” articles about Ukrainian Nazi units, and extensive legal consequences were threatened.

* Original German article: In Kiew »unerwünscht«. Ukraine: Selenskij-Regierung lässt Website von junge Welt blockieren: https://www.jungewelt.de/artikel/507017.pressefreiheit-in-kiew-unerwünscht.html