Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), in a letter to Volodymyr Groysman, Prime Minister of Ukraine, expressed concern over blocking to access in Ukraine to some of Russia’s most popular websites and social media sites including Yandex, Mail.ru, VKontakte and Odnoclassniki.

PPF Secretary General Owais Aslam Ali in his letter termed the blanket blocking of popular websites inside the Ukraine as an unjustifiable restriction on freedom of expression and urged the Ukrainian government to allow access to information without any hindrance.

According to ARTICLE 19, after Presidential Decree 133 may came into force on May 15, 2017, Ukrainian internet service providers will be required to block access to these sites for a period of three years.

In February 2017, the adviser to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Zoryan Shkiryak, stated that Russian social networks should be blocked in order to stop Russian propaganda.

The new decree also blocks a number of Russian television channels and the sites of Russian antivirus providers, Kaspersky Laboratory and DrWeb.