On the night of April 5–6, a Russian ballistic missile strike on Kyiv caused significant damage to the buildings housing the editorial offices of Ukraine’s State Foreign Broadcasting Enterprise – the International Broadcasting Multimedia Platform of Ukraine (IMBPU). These facilities had been relocated there after a previous strike on February 12.
That’s according to UATV English, Ukrinform reports.
In particular, the affected channels include FREEDOM, Dom, UATV English, The Gaze, UATV Espanol, UATV Arabic, UATV Portugues, as well as digital editorial offices and service departments.
Fortunately, no IMBPU employees were injured in the attack.
The new newsroom of the FREEDOM TV channel was destroyed, including a newly built studio that had been under preparation after the February strike. FREEDOM continues broadcasting from a backup studio. Other areas affected include the international digital editorial offices, the Dom TV newsroom, broadcast control rooms, and digital workspaces.
The top three floors of the business center where the foreign broadcasting channels were located were completely destroyed, leaving a large crater nearby. The lower floors were also heavily damaged and are now unusable.
“This is the second attack in less than two months. The facilities destroyed this time were the very ones we had just moved into after the February strike, including the digital and service teams and the studio we were preparing to relaunch for FREEDOM. Emergency services are currently clearing the debris and investigators are on site, so we still don’t know the full extent of the damage. It’s clear that the premises are unfit for work now — but we will find a solution. The most important thing is that no one from our team was hurt, and we are still on air. Thank you to everyone who supports and helps us,” said Yulia Bin, Director General of IMBPU.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, in the early hours of April 6, Russia launched a combined strike on Ukraine using air-, land-, and sea-launched missiles, as well as attack drones. Preliminary data indicates that 132 enemy aerial targets were detected and tracked by Ukrainian air defense, including 23 missiles and 109 Shahed-type drones.
As reported earlier, the February 12 strike also heavily damaged the FREEDOM newsroom, the international editorial team, and digital platforms including UATV English, The Gaze, UATV EspaNol, UATV Arabic, and UATV Portugues, as well as broadcasting and office spaces.
Source: Russian missile strike on Kyiv damages Ukrainian state foreign broadcasting channels
