Harry Knyagnitsky, a former correspondent for the Russian TV channel NTV, has been employed by the Russian service of the Voice of America since at least November 2022, and his work can be found on the American foreign service's website.
While at NTV, a channel fully funded by Gazprom, a state-owned company and sanctioned by the European Union, Knyagnitsky served as a war correspondent and produced propagandistic stories about Russia's military actions against Ukraine.
As an example of Knyagnitsky's work at NTV, he produced a story which claimed that the Ukrainian military was using signals from civilians' cell phones to guide their artillery attacks. In the same report, Knyagnitsky referred to the residents of the occupied territories, stating that "If earlier there were still those among the residents of Kramatorsk who tried to stay away from what was happening and simply survive, today many of them are ready to take up arms".
Knyagnitsky has produced several reports that accuse the Ukrainian army of targeting civilians, which can be found in the public domain. One such story, from October 2014, depicts Russian militants who are purportedly "forced to shoot back" in response to a Ukrainian tank that is allegedly threatening to destroy a residential area.
Knyagnitsky's reporting on NTV's website also includes a piece titled Genocide and Destruction": Donbas residents are terrified of the actions of the Ukrainian army, in which he features interviews with people who claim to be fleeing from cities liberated by the Ukrainian army and who accuse them of committing genocide. The article concludes with a quote from the correspondent about evacuated children: "Children are happy, thinking that the war is over. But the National Guard is already on the outskirts of Donetsk". It is worth noting that the alleged protection of "Donbas residents" from the Ukrainian army is a common theme in Russian propaganda and is used to justify their full-scale aggression and deportations.
On September 1, 2014, Garry Knyagnitsky published a story about Ukrainian children who had allegedly "moved" to Russia of their own accord. The NTV correspondent claimed that these children stood out from their peers due to their "aloofness and withdrawal" in their eyes. He also mentioned the transition of Crimean schools to the Russian curriculum. It's important to note that, according to the US Mission to the OSCE, approximately 14,000 children have been abducted from Ukraine by Russia during the full-scale war.
In none of the articles authored by Knyagnitsky does he mention Russian aggression. Instead, he refers to Russian militants as "militia" or "self-defence of the Donbas" while characterising the actions of the Ukrainian army as a "seizure of cities". Additionally, he contrasts the Ukrainian shelling, which he alleges caused a humanitarian catastrophe in Donetsk, with aid provided by Russia. It's important to recall that the European Court of Human Rights has determined that it is Russia that has been occupying part of the Donbas since 2014.
In addition to his coverage of the war, Knyagnytsky also filmed materials for NTV about Russia's "recognition" of the Revolution of Dignity as a coup d'état, alleged Ukrainian threats to teachers in Donetsk, and Crimea's "accession" into Russia. As a result of his coverage of these and other similar events, Knyagnytsky was placed on the Board of Shame in 2014.
Knyagnitsky also authored a story about the alleged detention of a "terrorist group" led by Oleg Sentsov in 2014. After that, Sentsov, a Ukrainian filmmaker, spent five years in a Russian prison. He filed a lawsuit against the Russian media that labelled him a "terrorist" prior to the court ruling.
Knyagnytsky worked for NTV until 2017, claiming that he left for ethical reasons. He stated, "How far can I bend?"
Following that, Knyagnytsky was employed at the New York office of the Russian TV channel RTVI. During his time there, the future Voice of America correspondent wrote, for example, about the protests following the murder of African-American George Floyd by the police, stating, "...Because where there are black people, there is crime. That's what the Russians who moved out of South and East Harlem say."
Knyagnytsky also prepared a piece on why the "liberal" American press is not investigating sexual allegations against Joe Biden: "The water is wet, the sky is blue, the New York Times wins a Pulitzer for reporting on the Putin regime [...] Tara Reid's story is indeed difficult to prove. This is no different from any other story like hers. But if we simply turn a blind eye to the evidence against Biden, won't this discredit the #MeToo movement, which is not at all foreign to the NYT? The editors are faced with a difficult choice. Much more difficult than just piling on Putin, Trump, and American conservatives. And this choice will not be rewarded with a Pulitzer."
While working for RTVI, Harry Knyagnitsky continued to report on the Ukrainian-Russian war. After Russia attacked and took control of Ukrainian ships in the Kerch Strait, Knyagnitsky speculated that Ukraine had deliberately provoked Russia. He also argued that in this situation, it was not clear who was legally to blame and who had entered whose waters. It is worth noting that in 2014, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on the non-recognition of the annexation of Crimea.
In 2018, on RTVI, Harry Knyagnitsky reiterated the Russian propaganda argument that the emergence of an autocephalous Ukrainian church could lead to the persecution of believers and a split among Ukrainians.
The Kyiv Post reports that Voice of America employees have already appealed to U.S. members of Congress and urged the broadcaster's management to reconsider the appointment of Knyagnitsky and another journalist, Daria Davydova. Her colleagues accuse her of legitimising the annexation of Crimea.
From Detector Media's own sources in the Russian service of the Voice of America, we know that the media outlet's employees first appealed to their own management, but it did not respond. Therefore, according to the sources, it was only a matter of time before they appealed to the members of Congress. At the same time, our sources are unaware of the existence of the letter to the members of Congress reported by the Kyiv Post.
According to the Kyiv Post, the authors of the appeal to Congress argue that the mission of the Voice of America cannot be entrusted to people who "worked for the Russian government and have been promoting pro-Russian narratives for years. This calls into question our reputation and the reputation of the Voice of America”.
