“It’s often said truth is the first casualty of war,” Tim Davie, the BBC’s director general, said as he announced the decision on Thursday. 

“In a conflict where disinformation and propaganda is rife, there is a clear need for factual and independent news people can trust… millions more Russians are turning to the BBC.”

The availability of the entire BBC website was down to 17 per cent, Globalcheck, a service that monitors censorship in the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, said –  which could indicate some services were blocked. 

According to BBC Russia, access to Meta, formerly known as Facebook, also seemed to be blocked, as did Google Play.

Western governments have dismissed any accusations by the Kremlin and say it is Russian state media that is biased.

The European Union banned Russian state-controlled media outlets RT and Sputnik with immediate effect on Wednesday for what it branded as systematic disinformation over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The sanction means EU operators will be prohibited from broadcasting, facilitating or otherwise contributing to the dissemination of any RT and Sputnik content. 

Britain’s media regulator was also considering whether RT should retain its licence in the country as it conducts 15 investigations into the broadcaster’s impartiality and a further 12 into its programming.

For more, listen to The Telegraph’s daily Ukraine podcast using the audio player below.