After the YouTube was blocked in the occupied territories of Ukraine, communication with the remaining residents has become much more difficult, but there came TikTok as a saving grace.

This message was voiced by Tetiana Yakubovych, Journalist and Editor, Radio Donbas Realities project at the 17th Annual Kyiv Security Forum “UA: UNITE AGAIN TO DEFEAT THE GLOBAL AGGRESSOR”, organized by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk Foundation “Open Ukraine”.

“We lost a large audience in the occupied territories after the YouTube blockade. It was really a mighty blow to us. But we search for new ways - and TikTok has become a surprisingly effective channel,” Ms Yakubovych says.

On TikTok, Donbass Realities journalists launched short videos and even live broadcasts. And residents in the occupied territories engaged most actively in Friday streams.

“We were uncertain whether this entertainment platform is suitable for political content. But it worked - we get high-quality comments from people in the occupied lands,” the Editor notes.

Another important tool, according to her, remains Telegram, which continues to operate in the occupied territories, although is deemed potentially dangerous.

“We constantly remind our audience the safety rules to use Telegram, especially if people sending us information. It is unsafe to continue engaging communications with/ from the occupied territories,” Tetiana Yakubovich stresses.

She also emphasizes that isolating residents in the occupied territories is the Kremlin’s strategy not only to the purpose of control, but also to sever all ties with mainland Ukraine.

“Russia deems it important that Ukrainian people are less and less aware of what is happening in the occupied swaths of land. “The lesser communication, the lesser the feedback people in mainland Ukraine get. And this is the Kremlin’s goal: to sever human bonds with those in the occupied territories, and abandon them completely,” she said.