โUkraine on Fire,โ a 2016 documentary that details historical conflicts in the country, such as the 2004 Orange Revolution and the 2014 overthrow of the Ukrainian government, has been banned by YouTube for violating the tech giantโs โviolent or graphic content policy.โ
The documentary is directed by Igor Lopatonok, executive produced by acclaimed filmmaker Oliver Stone, and features Stone interviewing former Ukrainian Viktor Yanukovych (who was ousted during the 2014 revolution), Russian President Vladimir Putin, and others.
In one clip, Yanukovych tells Stone that then-US Vice President Joe Biden was his highest-level contact in the US government during the 2014 revolution and that: โThe problem was that Mr. Biden said one thing, but they did something different in Ukraine.โ
In another clip, investigative journalist Robert Parry comments on a phone call between then-Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and then-US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, that was leaked in February 2014, days before the revolution began.
โSo you have this remarkable phone call where you have these two senior officials of the US government apparently talking about a coup or how they were planning to restructure the government of Ukraine,โ Parry says.
Yanukovych also asserts that the revolution was a planned โcoup dโรฉtatโ that โwas inevitable.โ
After Russia invaded Ukraine, interest in Ukraine on Fire skyrocketed. Itโs currently number two in the iTunes US documentary movie rental charts and featured as a โPopularโ documentary on the iTunes website.
But just a few days after this boost in popularity, YouTube purged Ukraine on Fire from Lopatonokโs Global Tree Pictures YouTube channel.
In its email to Global Tree Pictures, YouTube claims that Ukraine on Fire violated its violent or graphic content policy because โcontent that contains violent or graphic footage posted in a sensational or exploitative manner is not allowed on YouTube.
The email adds: โThis includes footage, audio, or imagery involving war, accidents, medical procedures, or other such scenarios with the intent to shock or disgust viewers.โ
In addition to being removed from YouTube, Ukraine on Fire also appears to be shadowbanned in Amazonโs Prime Video search result.
The documentary doesnโt appear in the regular Prime Video search results for the search term โUkraine on Fire.โ The exact match search results for the search term โUkraine on Fireโ state that there are โNo results for โUkraine on Fireโ in Prime Videoโ and display a link to the DVD and Blu-Ray version of the documentary.
Despite Amazon Prime Videoโs search claiming that there are no results for an exact search of the documentaryโs title, it is still available on Prime Video via a direct link.
Lopatonok has responded to Big Techโs censorship and suppression of his documentary by giving people the rights to download the documentary directly from Vimeo and urging them to โpost it everywhere.โ
โI would love to find Ukraine on Fire saturated YouTube, you know what to do!โ Lopatonok tweeted.
Lopatonok added that he plans to open the rights to another of his documentaries, โRevealing Ukraine,โ and make it available as a direct download on Vimeo.
Additionally, Lopatonok created a Rumble account and uploaded a copy of Ukraine on Fire.
โWe are fighting back against #YouTube #censorship,โ Lopatonok tweeted. โJust uploaded our with @TheOliverStone
documentary @UkraineOnFire on #rumbleโฆPlease share it!โ
Numerous YouTube and Rumble users have posted copies of Ukraine on Fire to YouTube and Rumble since Lopatonok opened the rights to the public. Copies of the documentary have also been uploaded to the free speech video sharing platforms Odysee and BitChute.
The censorship of Ukraine on Fire follows the European Union (EU) and Russia banning what they deem to be โmisinformationโ and โdisinformationโ about Russiaโs invasion of Ukraine.