Podolyak admits acquaintance with "Trukha" owner

Mykhailo Podolyak. Photo by espreso.tv

Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the President's Office, admitted that he stays in contact with representatives of some anonymous Telegram channels in order to work with their "huge audience". He said this in an interview with Liga.net, reports "Detector Media".

"I keep in touch with 'Trukha' as a platform to communicate certain important events. Telegram channels have a huge audience today. So why not work with these audiences?" said Podolyak.

According to him, he is in contact with the owner of the Telegram channel "Trukha".

"I know who the owner of the Trukha channel is and I am in touch with him. All. The law enforcement have no qualms with him," he explained.

When asked on what grounds one can conclude that this particular person, and not someone else, is the "Trukha" owner, Podolyak replied that "he (the owner) has repeatedly spoken about this in public" (Kharkiv businessman Maksym Lavrynenko has repeatedly stated that he owned the group of channels "Trukha". – Ed.).

In addition, the adviser to the head of President's Office believes that the ownership structure of Telegram channels should be made open, as was done with the media: "The ownership structure of any channel should be recorded so that there is no anonymity. And then it will be clear to us."

"If we manage to create a transparent ownership structure, then Telegram channels will exist as mass media, for sure. If we fail, then we will look for other solutions, because it is strange when anonymity dominates the market," Mykhailo Podolyak concluded.

In May 2023, the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting launched a registration mechanism for online media. As soon as July 2023, the first Telegram channel "Vid Sela do Mista" was registered as an online media outlet.

The IMI has written on whether Telegram channels should be registered as media outlets. Read the full article here.

We also remind you that Maksym Lavrynenko, who has repeatedly claimed that he owns the network of channels "Trukha", was accredited to attend the press conference with President Volodymyr Zelensky on December 19, 2023.

On October 16, 2023, the President's Office organized a closed meeting between Volodymyr Zelensky and the editors of multiple Ukrainian media outlets, inviting Trukha. Representatives of the anonymous Telegram channel being invited to the meeting caused outrage in parts of the media community.