The Telegram messenger poses a threat to the national security of Ukraine. About this stated head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov in an interview published on September 7 on Radio Charter.
“Telegram is harmful. I’ve never been afraid to say it. It’s a threat to our national security. I say it absolutely straight, and we’ve even documented it.”Budanov said.
He explained that according to the results of military intelligence research, it is Telegram that is now the main source of information in Ukrainian society.
However, Budanov does not support the idea of completely closing or blocking the messenger in Ukraine. Instead, he emphasizes the need to deanonymize the owners of Telegram channels.
“I am in favor of “officializing” all Telegram channels. If you want to broadcast some news, please register so that everyone understands that this is a channel of a citizen of the Russian Federation or a citizen of Ukraine. And then he has a responsibility to his subscribers.”, – said the head of GUR.
The head of GUR also admitted that it is technically possible to block Telegram, but it is a difficult task. He cited the example of blocking Odnoklasniki and VKontakte social networks. However, in his opinion, the X platform (formerly Twitter) does not pose a threat to national security.
What is known about the possible ban of Telegram in Ukraine?
On March 25, the Verkhovna Rada registered a draft law that proposes to regulate the activities of information sharing platforms such as Telegram. The initiators of the draft law propose to introduce strict rules for messengers in Ukraine.
During the Kyiv Stratcom Forum 2024 on March 27, Kyrylo Budanov stated that Telegram is a problem from the point of view of national security of Ukraine, due to its ability to cause internal destruction.
On May 19, HUR spokesman Andriy Yusov supported the idea of regulating the work of Telegram in Ukraine, since, according to intelligence, cases of cooperation of the messenger’s team with Russian special services were recorded.
On August 5, the head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy, Mykyta Poturaev, said that due to threats from Telegram, it should be closed following the example of banning VKontakte and Odnoklassniki social networks.
