Ukrainians Want to Ban Listening to Russian Artists

In Ukraine, a mechanism is being developed to block Russian artists on music streaming services for Ukrainian users. This was stated by the chairman of the subcommittee on music industry issues of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy, president of the All-Ukrainian Association of Music Events "UAME" Alexander Sanchenko in a comment to "Interfax-Ukraine."

Can Ukraine Achieve a Ban

"We created an open Google form and reached out to music media to help informatively. We added a list of artists and submitted it to the Security Service of Ukraine, and they or the Ministry of Culture submit it to the National Security and Defense Council. Some have already been issued, some are in process," he said.

Sancheko noted that communication has already been established with representatives of streaming platforms to hear their opinion on how to achieve such a ban.

"They basically told us that there are two options: either you adopt a law that, for example, bans based on language criteria, then we will respond; or you have sanctions from the National Security and Defense Council against specific artists and you address that you want to block them by geolocation, so they do not appear in Ukraine, or remove them if it relates to terrorism or something similar," the MP shared.

According to Sanchenko, the first option is not suitable from the perspective of Ukraine's European integration. He emphasized that work is currently underway in the President's Office and the relevant parliamentary subcommittee to expedite a decision from the National Security and Defense Council.

"So that they address the streaming services, look: there are already about 120 artists who have received restrictive measures from the National Security and Defense Council, so that the platforms make a decision to block them," the MP added.

Will There Be 'White Lists' for Some Russian Artists

Sanchenko also does not rule out the emergence of 'white lists' for Russian artists who publicly condemn Russian aggression. However, so far, no Russian artist has been included in such lists.

"In the previous legislation, we provided for 'white lists', there is a procedure, but currently there are zero artists in those lists. This means that this artist publicly writes to the Security Service of Ukraine that they condemn Russian aggression, and then a decision is made that we can keep them in the media space. We made such a gesture a few years ago because we thought it would encourage them to come out with such a position, which was important for us informatively, but no one stepped forward," he said.