German government charges journalist for interviewing Ukrainians in Donetsk

Alina Lipp

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Independent reporter Alina Lipp, a German-Russian journalist who is living in the Donbas region of Ukraine, is facing three years in prison from the German government for interviewing Ukrainian citizens and reporting on what she's seen and heard.

On top of the charges from German authorities, Lipp's PayPal and YouTube accounts have also been shut down.

A video published on March 9, 2022 on the video platform Rumble titled “Journalist Inside Eastern Ukraine: People Here Are Extremely Grateful Russia Finally Did Something” which showed Lipp in Ukraine reporting on how the citizens who lived in the contested Donbas region of eastern Ukraine were “extremely grateful that Russia had done something.”

With images like a sign that read “we are Russian Donbas” spray painted on the side of a building, Lipp's video explaining the broader context of the war then went viral.

As explained by Lipp:

You need to understand that Russia has been asking for eight years that the Minsk agreement be upheld. Ukraine did not adhere to it, nor did they approach the Donbas region in an attempt to come to an agreement.

Instead, they have been bombing the outskirts of the Donbas region for eight years. They are shooting at civilians, who now also have to live in completely shot-up houses. Very many people have died here.

Finally, the people here have been liberated from the terror that they’ve been experiencing for the last eight years.

According to the Morning Star, Lipp received a letter from the German government in June explaining that her reporting of residents in the Donbas region supporting Russia's military intervention was a crime in Germany.

German journalist persecuted and her bank account blocked for sharing what's happening in Ukraine. Free speech is no longer allowed. What's at stake for the #EU? With Dutch subtitles. pic.twitter.com/vPKqom7gtI

— Frank Hoogerbeets 🚜🚜🚜 (@hobeets) June 19, 2022

“I also said that for several years Ukrainians have been killing civilians in the Donbas and that this is genocide,” Lipp told her audience. “And it turns out to be a crime for Germany, so they took 1,600 euros from my bank account and didn't even tell me about it.”

German fact checkers have referred to Lipp as “the mouthpiece of Russian propaganda,” the Vision Times reported. She was also labelled as a “terrorist” by the Ukrainian government.