The United Nations has banned its staff from calling Russia’s brutal onslaught in Ukraine an ‘invasion’ or ‘war’ to avoid ‘reputational risk’.
Staff have instead been told to refer to the attack, which has forced two million to flee in Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II, a ‘conflict’ or ‘military offensive’.
The UN’s communications department also instructed staff not to add the Ukrainian flag to personal or official accounts online in an email yesterday, which as been seen by the Irish Times.
Civilians continue to flee from Irpin following the thirteenth day of Russian forces’ invasion into Ukraine
The alleged email, shared on Twitter by reporter Naomi O’Leary, said: ‘Some specific examples of language to use/not use at the moment: [Use] “conflict” or “military offensive” and NOT “war” or “invasion” when referring to the situation in Ukraine.’
It added: ‘This is an important reminder that we, as international civil servants, have a responsibility to be impartial.
‘It is particularly important during a crisis such as this one.’
The author of the email explained the guidance was there to avoid ‘reputational risk’.
The Kremlin has not referred to Russia’s actions in Ukraine as an invasion, but rather as a ‘special operation’.
The UN’s communications department also instructed staff not to add the Ukrainian flag to personal or official accounts online in an email yesterday, which has been seen by the Irish Times
A charred Russian tank and captured tanks are seen, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in the Sumy region, Ukraine, yesterday
MailOnline has reached out to the UN for a comment.
Russia has continued to crack down on censorious reporting of the war since last month.
Putin had blocked Facebook for ‘discrimination towards Russian media’ in response to the social media giant banning Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik in the UK at the request of the British government.
A week after Moscow invaded Ukraine, Russia’s media regulator Roskomnadzor announced that Facebook would be banned, citing ’26 instances of discrimination toward Russian media’.
The regulator also later said that it wrote a letter to Alphabet Inc., Google and YouTube’s parent company, seeking the removal of all restrictions imposed on state media outlets such as RBC, TV Zvezda and Sputnik.
A police officer helps to carry the belongings of people who have fled Ukraine as they walk at the border crossing in Medyka, Poland today
YouTube blocked access to state-run media channels at the request of the Ukrainian government, which Ukraine Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov confirmed on Twitter.
This comes on the thirteenth day of Russia’s invasion, as civilians in the besieged port of Mariupol in southeast Ukraine are anxiously waiting for news of evacuation efforts as they struggle to survive in a city where bodies have been left uncollected on the streets.
Since Saturday, Russian and Ukrainian authorities have committed to setting up evacuation routes but efforts have repeatedly collapsed amid more fighting along the route. Another effort was made today.
Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2010. He has blocked Facebook for ‘discrimination towards Russian media’
With water supplies cut, people have been collecting water from streams or melting snow.
Power cuts mean that many residents have lost internet access and now rely on their car radios for information, picking up news from stations broadcast from areas controlled by Russian or Russian-backed separatist forces.
Two million people – half of them children – have been forced to flee the country as the conflict rages on.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees and UNICEF confirmed the figures as more people headed for the borders Tuesday. Poland has received more than 1.2 million Ukrainian refugees, the most of any nation.
Overnight, Russian aircraft pressed on with bombing cities in eastern and central Ukraine.
Shelling pounded suburbs of the capital, Kyiv, and food, water, heat and medicine have grown increasingly scarce in multiple cities facing electricity outages.