The United Kingdom on Friday banned the Russian channel, RT, saying it was not capable of providing impartial coverage of the Ukraine crisis, reported CNN.

RT, formerly known as Russia Today, has also been banned by the European Union as part of sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine.

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the invasion as a “special military operation” aimed at dislodging the “neo-Nazis” ruling Ukraine.

The bombing of several Ukrainian cities has resulted in nearly 50,000 casualties so far. More than 25 lakh people have fled the country.

“Following an independent regulatory process, we have today found that RT is not fit and proper to hold a licence in the UK,” said Melanie Dawes, chief Ofcom, UK’s broadcast media regulator.

RT has faced 29 inquiries by the British regulator over its coverage of the Ukraine war, The Guardian reported. The channel has constantly said that Russia is conducting a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine.

Russia on March 4 introduced laws criminalising any reporting that does not concur with the government’s narrative on the Ukraine invasion.

Ofcom on Friday said it had also factored this development into its decision to ban the channel, noting that it affects the impartiality of the Russian-backed media house.

“We consider that given these constraints it appears impossible for RT to comply with the due impartiality rules of our broadcasting code in the circumstances,” the regulator said, reported The Guardian.

The ban, however, will not stop RT from operating and distributing news on its online digital media platforms.

RT said that the UK regulator’s decision is an attack on freedom of speech. “We were banned from working for one reason: any point of view in the west that is different from the official one now has simply no right to exist,” said the channel.

Meanwhile, Ofcom said that it was bound to “protect audiences from harmful partial broadcast news services in the UK”.