Ukraine to Counterbalance RT With New Channel 'Ukrainian Tomorrow'

Maxim Stulov / VedomostiUkraine earlier this month moved to deny accreditation to more than 100 Russian media outlets as threats to national security.

Ukraine next month will launch a television channel called Ukrainian Tomorrow, partially funded by U.S. sources, in an effort to counterbalance the Kremlin-funded network RT, Ukraine’s information policy minister told reporters in Lviv.

“They have only today, but we have tomorrow,” Minister Yury Stets said last week at a conference in an apparent play on RT’s former name, Russia Today, the Interfax-Ukraina news agency reported.

The Ukrainian national bank’s television channel BTB will be transferred to the Information Policy Ministry within two weeks and then transformed into Ukrainian Tomorrow, the minister said.

“Financial support will be provided by our partners from Europe and the United States. The channel should be high-quality and broadcast all over the world,” he said in comments carried by Kiev-based news agency UNIAN.

The channel will also be funded by the Ukrainian government as well as local businesspeople, the minister said in comments carried by Interfax. It was not immediately clear in what language the channel would broadcast.

The minister said that he had recently met with U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt, who “confirmed” that U.S. sources would provide financing for the project, Interfax reported.

The Information Policy Ministry was established in Ukraine in December in part to counteract Russian media’s portrayal of the Ukraine crisis.

Viktoria Syumar, the deputy head of Ukraine’s National Security Defense Council, said last year that the government was considering making an English-language channel that would have “no lies and staged videos like RT.”

Ukraine earlier this month moved to deny accreditation to more than 100 Russian media outlets as threats to national security.

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last week that Russia will not reciprocate with a similar ban.

Russia will not “limit the right of people to receive information from various media sources,” Peskov said in comments carried by state news agency TASS.