On 6 March 2023, Kyiv-based media rights defense group IMI reported that Yuri Malashko, the new governor of Zaporizhia region, a territory in South-East Ukraine partially occupied by Russian forces, was systematically refusing to speak to local journalists, who lack official information on Russia’s attacks on the region as a result. According to IMI, in a month since he took up office, Malashko had not conducted any press conferences and refused to speak to media at public events. The local branch of Ukraine’s public broadcaster, Suspilne, said that the new governor had not responded to requests for an interview related to military activities in the region. The editor-in-chief of the Zaporizhia branch of Suspilne, Alona Natalukha, as well as Olha Zvonaryova, the local correspondent of Ukraine’s national press agency, Ukrinform, confirmed that there was a “crisis of communication” with the new governor. IMI recalled a recent Russian missile attack on a residential building in Zaporihia, which killed at least 15 people, and claimed that due to Malashko’s lack of official communication, other state institutions in Zaporizhia provided contradictory information on the number of victims of the attack. Several other journalists from the region confirmed the issues: these were the correspondent for TV channels STB and ICTV Andriy Pochtyev, as well as a correspondent for local media 061.ua Elmira Shahabutdynova and the editor of local website Pershyi Zaporizkyi Andriy Vavilov. IMI was unable to reach the office of Yuri Malashko to obtain an explanation of the situation.