Ukraine featured as a key subject in 74% of Telegram posts made by the exiled Ukrainian politicians Oleh Tsaryov, Mykola Azarov, and Volodymyr Oliynyk, as well as the project Drugaya Ukraina (“The Other Ukraine”), affiliated with Viktor Medvedchuk, a study by the Institute of Mass Information showed.
IMI analysed 200 posts. The highest share of posts focusing on Ukraine as a central subject was recorded on the channels owned by Mykola Azarov and Drugaya Ukraina (78% each). This figure stood at 74% for Volodymyr Oliynyk and 66% for Oleh Tsaryov.
Only 9.5% of all the posts analysed dealt purely with domestic Russian topics.
The monitoring also found that these channels did not focus solely on the Russo–Ukrainian war. The key topics included the work of Ukrainian authorities, the draft, corruption, Ukraine’s relations with Western partners, economic and social problems.
The channels used certain issues and conflicts as evidence to support their sweeping statements about the “systemic failures” of the Ukrainian state. In particular, mobilisation-related conflicts are presented as proof of an adversarial relationship between the state and its citizens, while Ukraine’s reliance on international military and financial aid was framed as proof of “external control” and isolated cases of corruption were portrayed as characteristic of the entire state system.
At the same time, each of the channels analysed had its own focus. Oleh Tsaryov combined reports on war developments with political commentary. Mykola Azarov capitalised on his status as a former prime minister to compare present-day Ukraine with the period before 2014. Volodymyr Oliynyk mostly aggregated and reposted content from other sources. Drugaya Ukraina combined political messaging with practical, service-oriented information targeting Ukrainian audience.
IMI used its own LLM-based AI assistant “Levko” to structure and analyse the data set for the study and to identify recurring phrases, timing overlaps, and other patterns. All of Levko’s output was checked and approved by IMI analysts. The IMI team determines and approves the study’s methodology, data interpretation, conclusions, and final text.