Ukraine's intelligence chief Budanov assesses work of Telegram in Ukraine

He said this on March 27 at the Kyiv Stratcom Forum 2024, organized by the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security.

According to Budanov, Ukraine has limited means of interaction with residents of the temporarily occupied territories.

"The most interesting thing is Telegram, everyone reads it. It has a destructive effect here at home in many ways, but it also allows us to convey something to people in the occupied territories. This is something that more or less works somehow," he said.

At the same time, the head of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine warned of the danger of the messenger.

"Telegram is definitely a problem in terms of national security. This must be understood. Besides, I am absolutely against the infringement of freedom of speech. But this is too much. In other words, anyone can create a channel, start writing whatever they want on it, and when they start doing something, they can hide behind the fact that it's media freedom. But this is not media freedom, it's called something else," Budanov emphasized.

• On March 25, MP Mykola Kniazhytskyi introduced a bill to the Ukrainian parliament that proposes to regulate Telegram in Ukraine. The bill does not include blocking the messenger.