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Ukraine launches 24-hour news channel

The channel is meant to be Ukraine's defense against the powerful Russian state media and the "large-scale information war" coming out of the Kremlin.

By Aileen Graef

KIEV, Ukraine, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- Ukraine launched its own 24-hour English news channel Sunday to combat the Kremlin "information war" skewing the crisis in Ukraine.

Ukraine Today was launched on the country's independence day, August 24, by the 1+1 Media Group, which includes eight Ukrainian television channels and five online news sites. The director of 1+1 Media Group, Oleksandr Tkachenko, said the channel was created to combat the "large-scale information war" waged by the Kremlin through Russian state media.

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It's main Russian competitor, RT, is a large, international English-language pro-Kremlin network. Ukraine Today is pro-Ukrainian and pro-European.

"Ukraine's image problem is that it is somehow depicted as a provincial, very minor, obscure, ambiguous place. It's actually the biggest country in Europe. It's got a population of 45 million. Europe needs to know more about Ukraine," said Peter Dickinson, chief editor of UT.

The channel is currently online and plans to broadcast in the United States and in Russia.

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