On 20 December 2022, Danish national broadcaster DR said in a statement that Ukraine revoked TV journalist Matilde Kimer’s accreditation. The documents had been cancelled in August, but discussions between Kimer and the State Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) continued since. According to Ukrainian authorities, she “spread Russian propaganda”, a claim Kimer and DR both denied.
The civilian relations department of the Ukrainian army, which cancelled the journalist’s accreditation, did not provide any reasons for the move. However, Kimer and her colleagues in Ukraine linked the decision to some of her social media posts, which she published during her time as a correspondent for DR in Russia (Kimer had been expelled by Moscow earlier in the year). None of these can be considered as breaking Ukrainian legislation, said Kimer, quoted by Kateryna Serhatskova, editor-in-chief of Zaborona, an independent Ukrainian news and analysis portal.
On 19 December 2022, the Danish Union of Journalists (DJ) sent a letter to the Ukrainian ambassador in Denmark and to the Danish Foreign Minister, condemning actions against Matilde Kimer.
The SBU later stated that Kimer’s accreditation was revoked due to her visits in an area near the city of Mykolayiv which she was allegedly not authorized to enter. According to the services’ officials, the Danish journalist also illegally visited the occupied regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as Crimea. Matilde Kimer refuted both of these claims and said she did not break Ukrainian legislation. She also said that SBU officials offered to renew her accreditation on the condition that she agrees to write “good news” on Ukraine, which she perceived as an offer to write propaganda stories.
On 5 January 2023, DR wrote that Ukrainian authorities had renewed Matile Kimer’s accreditation.