“Telegram is harmful. I have never been afraid to say this. It is a threat to our national security. I am stating this very clearly, and we have even documented it,” Budanov said.

According to Budanov, military intelligence research has confirmed that Telegram is currently the primary source of information for the Ukrainian public.

While Budanov does not support the idea of shutting down or blocking Telegram within Ukraine, he believes that the identities of channel owners on the messenger need to be disclosed.

“I advocate for ‘physicalizing’ all Telegram channels. If you want to broadcast news, please register so that everyone knows if it’s a channel belonging to a citizen of Russia or Ukraine. Then there is accountability,” Budanov said.

Read also: Parliament prepares bill to regulate Telegram

Additionally, Budanov is convinced that blocking Telegram — similar to the action taken years ago with Odnoklassniki and VKontakte — is a technically challenging but achievable task. He also considers the social network X (formerly Twitter) to be harmless to national security.

Possible ban on Telegram in Ukraine

On March 25, a bill titled “On amendments to some laws of Ukraine regarding the regulation of platforms for access to information dissemination” was registered in the Verkhovna Rada. Its initiators proposed regulating the Telegram platform.

On March 27, during the Kyiv Stratcom Forum 2024, Kyrylo Budanov stated that Telegram is a security problem for Ukraine. According to him, Telegram often has a destructive effect within the country.

On May 19, HUR spokesperson Andriy Yusov said that Telegram’s operations in Ukraine need regulation. He mentioned that military intelligence has repeatedly recorded instances of collaboration between the development team and Russian intelligence services.

On Aug. 5, Mykyta Poturayev, head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy, said that due to the threats Telegram poses to Ukraine, it should be shut down like VKontakte and Odnoklassniki.