U.S. to help Ukraine counter Russian propaganda — Senator Portman

The United States will help Ukrainian authorities in the fight against Russian propaganda in Donbas.

U.S. Senator Rob Portman said this in his speech at the United States Senate, reporting on his recent meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"We discussed [with Zelensky] Russian propaganda along the eastern border and efforts to jam Ukrainian TV signals to sow the seeds for dissension for the people of Donbas region. We talked about some ideas that would help counter that propaganda, the jamming, and the disinformation, and I have already been in touch with the State Department about those ideas," he said.

Portman added that he had heard several requests from the Ukrainian side regarding the defense sector, and he had already started discussing them with his colleagues from the Armed Services Committee.

The senator also noted that he had discussed with the Ukrainian president the issue of the 24 Ukrainian sailors captured by Russia in the Kerch Strait in the Sea of Azov in November 2018, and how to keep the pressure on Moscow to release them.

“So I’ve returned from this brief trip to Ukraine hopeful. Hopeful that Ukraine is ready to write the next chapter of its long history, and it will be a chapter of freedom with a government and society that benefits all its citizens. And the United States of America must continue to be a good friend and ally in that quest. I am certainly determined to do my part to make it so,” Portman summed up.

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