MOSCOW -- Russia's media regulator, Roskomnadzor, has blocked two more independent media websites amid a crackdown over coverage of Moscow's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
The Diskurs and Kholod online newspapers said on April 9 that their websites had been blocked at the request of the Prosecutor-General's Office.
The editors of Diskurs said they were not warned about the move and did not know why exactly their site was blocked.
Kholod said it received two warnings from Roskomnadzor in the last two weeks demanding that the newspaper delete its reports about the ongoing war in Ukraine.
"We are not going to obey censorship, especially military censorship in the country that even does not accept that it started a war," Kholod said in a statement.
After Russia launched the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Roskomnadzor ordered all media outlets to use only information provided by official Russian sources when covering events in Ukraine. It also directed media to describe events there as a "special military operation" and not a "war" or an "invasion."
The Prosecutor-General's Office then demanded websites of many media outlets be blocked, saying they distributed "false information about the Russian Army" in their reports about the developments in Ukraine.
On March 5, President Vladimir Putin signed a new law that calls for sentences of up to 15 years in prison for people who "deliberately distribute false news" about the Russian military.
Several Russian media outlets have chosen to suspend operations rather than face heavy restrictions on what they can report. The Kremlin has also blocked multiple foreign news outlets.
