Ukraine demands apology from Fox News for labeling Kyiv as Russian

Apr 22, 2025 - 08:25

ukraine demands apology fox news labeling kyiv russian mislabeled part russia alongside adjacent pane patriarch kirill moscow propaganda ukraine's ministry foreign affairs has demanded american tv channel after incorrectly labeled

Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has demanded an apology from American TV channel Fox News after it incorrectly labeled Kyiv as a Russian city during its Easter broadcast on 20 April 2025.

This comes amid US President Donald Trump’s pivot toward Russia. Fox News’ mislabeling of Kyiv as a Russian city echoes Moscow’s anti-Ukrainian propaganda, which has been used to justify Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

According to BBC Ukraine, the error occurred during Fox News’ live transmission of the Easter service from the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, where Kyiv was marked as a Russian city for approximately 20 minutes before the mistake was corrected. The broadcast used footage from Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne Kultura.

After correcting the error, Fox News continued broadcasting approximately 30 minutes of Easter service from Moscow featuring Patriarch Kirill next to the stream from Kyiv. Kirill is the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, who blessed Russian troops for the war in March 2022 and has consistently supported the invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi reacted to the incident on X.

“If this was a mistake, and not a deliberate political statement, they should apologize and investigate who made the error,” Tykhyi wrote.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also indirectly referenced the situation in a Telegram post, though without specifically naming the media outlet.

“…It is worth not broadcasting services from Moscow, but putting pressure on Moscow to actually implement a complete ceasefire and maintain it for at least 30 days after Easter, to give diplomacy a chance,” Zelenskyy wrote.

Fox News has not yet commented on the error.

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