Alina Lipp

Alina Lipp  (journalist, politician)
Born	1986
Residence	Donbass,  Ukraine
Nationality	German
Interests	Serena Shim Award
German independent journalist and former Green Party politician living in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass

Alina Lipp is a German independent journalist and former Green Party politician living in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass area who has been labelled a Russian terrorist, harassed, and criminally charged by German authorities for her pro-Russian reporting.

Alina Lipp, born to a German mother and a Russian father, has lived in Donetsk for the past six months and has seen her bank account frozen and raided for €1,600 without further explanation. German authorities say that she may not defend herself in court as that may thwart the investigation.

Russians as liberators

Lipp raised eyebrows in March 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion, which both she and President Vladimir Putin calls a de-Nazification operation, over comments she made in a video that there were no atrocities committed by the Russians and that the Ukrainian hostilities against its own (Russian speaking) citizens over the past eight years should be highlighted. She reported that the Donbass locals regarded the Russian troops as liberators.

Risky business

Despite the charges against her, Alina Lipp plans to continue reporting from Donetsk, which she said is being shelled daily by the Ukrainian armed forces. Reporting in Ukraine is tightly restricted and those who deviate from the Kiev line do so at serious risk to their safety.

Canadian journalist Eva Bartlett, who has also been reporting from the Donbass region, says she has been placed on a government kill list.

In May 2014, Italian photojournalist Andrea Rocchelli was shot dead by Ukrainian soldiers in the east of the country.

On 27 June 2022, Roderick tweeted:

Julian Assange warned us! Independent German journalist #AlinaLipp has been in Donbass for 6 months reporting what she sees: the execution of innocent people by Kiev forces. Now she’s facing 3 years in a “free speech” German prison. Open your eyes folks!

Own words

Alina Lipp transmits first-hand information to her audience in German, Russian, and English from her telegram channel.

Lipp claims she is only doing what any journalist would do — interviewing citizens and documenting what is happening around her.

The journalist explained she is “doing interviews with people in Donetsk and merely translating them into German.”

“I am simply filming everything I see around,” Lipp added.

She inquired rhetorically “what is it that’s illegal in that, or dangerous?”

The controversy around Lipp began in March when one of her videos explaining the history and the context of the war went viral.

In Lipp’s viral video, she said, “you need to understand that Russia has been asking for eight years that the Minsk agreements be upheld. Ukraine did not adhere to it, nor did they approach the Donbass region in an attempt to come to agreement.”

“Instead, they have been bombing the outskirts of the Donbass region for eight years. They are shooting at civilians, who now also have to live in completely shot-up houses. Very many people have died here,” Lipp continued.

In the video, Lipp alleged that the Donbass citizens who overwhelmingly voted to secede from Ukraine in 2014 had been, “thankful that Russia finally did something”.

Lipp added, “Finally, the people here have been liberated from the terror that they’ve been experiencing for the last eight years,” under continuous shelling by the Ukrainian military.

Soon after the video went viral, Lipp’s YouTube channel was closed, her PayPal account was blocked, and the Ukrainian government labelled her a “terrorist”.

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