Westi

Vesti (News) is one of Ukraine’s main daily newspapers. Launched in 2013 and distributed for free for many years, the newspaper quickly gained huge popularity. It is now being sold on the streets and at subway stations at a symbolic price of 1, 2 or 5 hryvnia. After the violent regime change in 2014, it was critical of the new govermnent, leading to problems with the law enforcement agencies. The editorial offices were shut down by the authorities after numerous searches in February 2018. Yet the newspaper is still in circulation. Former editor-in-chief Ihor Huzhva later founded the government-critical website Strana after being forced to leave in 2015. Opponents describe the site and the paper as pro-Russian. The formal owner is Denis Mosgovoj, informally it is said that the owner is actually Alexander Klimenko, a former minister in the Yanukovych government. Klimenko currently lives abroad. He is wanted for corruption in the Ukraine.