Russian missile destroys office of Crimean Tatar TV channel ATR in Kyiv. VIDEO&PHOTOS
On the night of February 12, during a rocket attack on Kyiv, Russian troops hit the building of the Crimean Tatar TV channel ATR. The journalists were not injured, but the editorial office suffered significant damage.
This was reported by journalist and deputy director general of the channel Ayder Muzhdabaev, Censor.NET reports.
He said that the explosion damaged the channel's interior, including the newsroom, studio, dressing room and staff offices.
"There were books on the history of the Crimean Tatars that the channel published back in 2013. The newsroom, our studio, from where we were broadcasting, were damaged. Now everything here is in ruins," Muzhdabaev said.
The journalist showed the smashed office of the editor-in-chief Gulsum Khalilova. He emphasized that no employees of the TV channel were injured.
Muzhdabaev is convinced that the attack on the Crimean Tatar TV channel was deliberate.
It cannot be an accident that the missile hit here. First, Russian special forces stormed ATR in Crimea, and then the channel was forced to leave the peninsula. It was financed by Ukraine, but later this support was stopped. And now we have been physically destroyed," he said.
He emphasized that ATR remained an important media resource for Crimean Tatars, and the Russian authorities perceived it as a "bone in their throat."
"The enemies are disturbed by the independent television of the indigenous people of Crimea, and they decided to eliminate it," Muzhdabaev summarized.
Reference
ATR is the first Crimean Tatar TV channel that started broadcasting on September 1, 2006 in Simferopol. After the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, the channel faced pressure from the occupation authorities and was forced to stop broadcasting in Crimea on April 1, 2015. Subsequently, ATR resumed its activities in Kyiv, continuing to report on events related to the Crimean Tatar people and Ukraine.
It should be noted that the Office of Ukrainian Foreign Broadcasting, located 5 km from ATR's office, was also damaged as a result of the Russian attack on Kyiv on February 12.
