The Telegram messenger app is "harmful" and a "threat to our national security," Ukraine's military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said in an interview published on Sept. 7.
Budanov made the comments weeks after the arrest of Russian-born Telegram CEO Pavel Durov in France.
A French court has charged Durov has with several crimes, including the management of an online platform that allows for illegal transactions, child pornography, drug trafficking, and fraud.
Speaking to Radio Khartiya, Budanov said he has "never been afraid to say" that Telegram represents a threat to Ukraine's national security.
"Telegram is harmful," Budanov said, adding that blocking Telegram would be feasible.
Budanov said that he was not in favor of blocking Telegram in the same way that Ukraine blocked Russian social media VKontakte in May 2017, but that Telegram channel owners should not be anonymous.
Yaroslav Azhnyuk
Channel owners should be required to register their identity "so that everyone understands that this is a channel of a citizen of the Russian Federation or a citizen of Ukraine," he said.
Telegram remains one of the most popular social media platforms among Ukrainians. A September 2023 poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology indicated that 44% of Ukrainians use Telegram to receive information and news.
Telegram is also widely used by Ukrainian officials and various government institutions against the advice of Ukraine's TV and radio-broadcasting body.
Pavel Durov, who has an estimated net worth of $15.5 billion, left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on the Russian social media platform VK, which he subsequently sold.
Durov has claimed he is a pariah and has been effectively exiled from Russia, but has in fact visited Russia over 60 times since leaving the country, according to Kremlingram, a Ukrainian group that campaigns against the use of Telegram in Ukraine.
Kateryna Denisova
