After comparing Ukraine to Nazi Germany, satellite operator Eutelsat has stopped broadcasting Russian channel NTV Mir via Hotbird 13C satellite in Europe.

The company said it had stopped broadcasting NTV Mir at the request of the French media regulator Arcom.

Eutelsat does not specify which countries this applies to.

This depends "on the agreements that the broadcaster has with the countries covered by the satellite".

The NTV Group is owned by the Russian energy group Gazprom.

French media regulator Arcom (Autorité de régulation de la communication audiovisuelle et numérique) wrote on its website that NTV Mir “tends to repeatedly portray not only the Ukrainian leadership and army, but also and especially the Ukrainian population as supporters of the Nazis - ideology of the Third Reich and as extremely dangerous".

This conveys a "threatening image of the Ukrainian population as a whole, fueling hatred against them".

NTV Mir spread Kremlin propaganda to legitimize the war against Ukraine.

The agency cites, among other things, an April 24 program in which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is described as a "comedian playing Hitler" who "ordered a rocket to be fired at women and children."

Since the Russian attack on Ukraine on February 24, Eutelsat, in which the French state has a stake and which broadcasts programs across Europe, has cut off the signal of Russian channels several times.

In early March, the satellite operator complied with a request from the EU and stopped broadcasting the news channels of the Russian group RT.

At the end of June, also after intervention by the EU, the channels RTR Planeta and Rossiya 24 were removed from the satellite.

Nevertheless, Russian state broadcasters are still represented in Eutelsat's offer.

André Lange, founder of the Comité Diderot, which has long criticized Eutelsat for doing business with Russia, welcomed Arcom's decision.

However, the shutdown of NTV Mir is "marginal" because the broadcaster only has low ratings, Lange said in "Le Monde".

With his initiative, he continues to insist that Eutelsat no longer distributes the program bouquets of the Russian providers NTV Plus and Tricolor.

The organization Reporters Without Borders has joined the protest. Eutelsat continues to supply 15 million Russian households with Putin's propaganda transmitters.

And Eutelsat still works together with the Russian space agency Roskosmos.

The French state is the largest shareholder in Eutelsat.

The satellite company is currently in merger talks with British competitor Oneweb.

The British state has an 18 percent stake in this.