The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced the holding of “rotation measures” and removed Natalya Gumenyuk, head of the Center for Strategic Communications of the Southern Defense Forces, from her post.
“A decision was made to end the mission and exclude Colonel Natalya Gumenyuk from the forces and means of the corresponding group of troops,” the General Staff said in a statement.
It has not yet been announced who will replace Gumenyuk; specialists are being selected. The Center for Strategic Communications of the Southern Defense Forces will operate as normal, the General Staff added.
On April 16, a community of journalists from leading Ukrainian media, investigative journalists and experts from media public organizations (Media Movement) appealed to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Alexander Syrsky, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Rustem Umerov and the Chief of the General Staff Anatoly Bargilevich with a request to remove Gumenyuk from her post.
Journalists complained that Gumenyuk interfered with their work and limited coverage of events in his zone of subordination. The authors of the appeal called the ban on entry into the flooded cities and villages of the Kherson region on the day of the explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station in June 2023 the “most egregious” case.
According to journalists, Gumenyuk also forbade filming the dried-up bottom of the reservoir and recording what was happening in villages where water had disappeared due to the explosion of a hydroelectric power station.
Obtaining official permission to travel to these settlements through checkpoints “was impossible,” media representatives said. As a result, they had to enter the villages of the Kherson and Nikolaev regions through “minefields.”
Journalists complained that because of Gumenyuk’s actions, war correspondents were offered to work in “Potemkin trenches” tens of kilometers from the real front line.” They were also prohibited from visiting hospitals, the appeal says.
In this regard, media representatives asked to replace Natalya Gumenyuk “with a more competent person and not allow her to participate in any communications management.” The appeal was supported by 160 journalists, producers, freelancers and media groups. Among the signatories are representatives of the publications Suspilne, Ukrainska Pravda, Hromadske, TSN, Sky News, France 2, AFP, The Sunday Times, Le Monde, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, BBC News and others.
Gumenyuk called journalists’ accusations that they were not allowed to cover the explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station “absolutely untrue.” According to her, in a week “more than 800 requests were processed in a simplified manner” taking into account the “security of operations.”
The speaker also stated that the journalists did not provide evidence of their accusations, and the press center of the Southern Defense Forces did not violate the orders of the command.
Natalia Gumenyuk has headed the joint coordination press center of the Defense Forces of southern Ukraine since April 2022.
