Ukraine asks if Telegram, its favorite app, is a sleeper agent

Kyiv, Ukraine — In the nearly three years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the messaging app Telegram has been a lifeline for millions of Ukrainians. It provides information about coming attacks and helps communities organise food, medical aid and other support.

But what has been a salvation has increasingly turned into a major source of concern. In recent months, Ukrainian officials have become more alarmed by the country’s dependence on Telegram, as worries that the app was used as a vector of disinformation and a spying tool for Russia have mushroomed.

Ukraine is now trying to disentangle itself from Telegram. In September, authorities ordered the military, government officials and those working on critical infrastructure to limit their use of the app on work phones. More sensitive communications have been moved to encrypted apps like Signal. Some senior officials have proposed new restrictions for Telegram, including rules to disclose who is behind anonymously run channels with large followings.

“We understand we are dependent,” said Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, a member of Ukraine’s parliament who has drafted a law to tighten regulation of Telegram. “It’s a problem for us.”

Ukraine’s experience with Telegram illustrates the benefits and drawbacks of being beholden to a single app. Rarely has a country been so reliant on a platform it has no control over for communication, information and other critical services, particularly during a war.

That dependence is emulated perhaps only in Russia, where Telegram is used by roughly half the population, including many in the military and government. That has made the app a central information battlefield in the war. In some cases, Ukrainian and Russian drone pilots use Telegram groups to taunt each other and share videos of attacks.

Ukraine’s concerns about Telegram parallel rising global scrutiny of the platform, which is approaching 1 billion users. Once seen as a haven for activists and those living under authoritarian governments, the app has angered governments as it has become a hub of illicit and extremist material. Pavel Durov, Telegram’s founder, was arrested in France in August on charges related to the company’s failure to address criminal activity on the platform.

For Ukraine, distancing itself from Telegram will not be easy. Roughly 70% of Ukrainians use Telegram as a main source of news, according to a recent survey commissioned in part by the U.S. government. When air raid sirens wail and missiles descend on Ukrainian cities, people flock to Telegram groups for real-time updates. The government broadcasts official announcements and gathers intelligence inside Russian-occupied territories through the app.

Yet in secret cybersecurity meetings this year, Ukrainian officials discussed putting new limits on Telegram, two people with knowledge of the discussions said. The country’s intelligence service concluded the app posed national security risks and was used by Russia for disinformation, cyberattacks, hacking, spreading malware, location tracking and adjusting missile strikes.

As a security measure, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who regularly posts war updates to his more than 700,000 followers on Telegram, does not use the app on his personal phone, a Ukrainian cybersecurity official said. In March, officials took the unusual step of asking Apple to rein in the platform because the Silicon Valley giant can leverage its app store — which Telegram needs for global distribution — to get the company to act.

In a statement, Telegram defended the security of its platform, saying Russia “has not — and cannot — access user information.” The company added, “Telegram is and always has been safe for Ukrainians and users around the world.”

But what makes Telegram so powerful also makes it a threat, Ukrainian officials said. Unlike other social media, Telegram has few guardrails. There is no algorithm determining what people see and little content moderation, enabling the rapid spread of lifesaving warnings but also exposing the app to exploitation. Broadcasting features allow users to quickly share text, videos and files with large groups.

“I have some relatives in the occupied territories and the only way to get in touch with them is Telegram,” said Maksym Yali, an analyst for Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security, a government agency that monitors Telegram and other apps for disinformation. “But under the conditions of war, do the risks outweigh the benefits?”

He said Ukrainians visiting friends or family in Russia must hand over their phones at the airport to security officers who use specialised software to check their Telegram app, including deleted material, for pro-Ukraine content.

Ukrainians’ affection for Telegram began in 2017. That was when the country banned the Russian-controlled social media platform VKontakte, which was used to amplify Russian disinformation and propaganda.

Telegram’s prominence grew during Zelenskyy’s presidential run in 2019. His campaign deftly used the service to connect with voters, thanks partly to Mykhailo Fedorov, a young digital strategist who now leads the Ministry of Digital Transformation. In a 2020 interview, Fedorov said he had regular contact with Durov and his management team.

In 2022, just before Russia’s invasion, Ukrainian intelligence cautioned Zelenskyy about Telegram, two people with knowledge of the matter said. In a memo, military intelligence warned about the risks of Russian influence but said the threat did not merit an outright ban of the app.

Zelenskyy’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

The war revealed that many Telegram channels were run from Russia. Accounts that appeared to be Ukrainian peddled disinformation, including unfounded claims that Zelenskyy had fled the country.

Still, the app’s popularity soared as traditional media struggled to keep pace.

“Telegram is the main source of information, more than television, radio and all the other media,” said Maksym Dvorovyi, head of digital rights with Digital Security Lab Ukraine, a civil society group. He said that was a “sad reality” because of the security risks and volume of unverified information and propaganda.

For many popular Telegram channels, the money flowed. With millions of followers, they charged thousands of dollars per ad, with promotions from cake shops and crypto boosters sitting alongside warnings of drone attacks and announcements of blackouts.

Few know the operators of some of the most-visited channels, which have names like “Legitimate” and “Cartel.” A September study by Detector Media, a European Union-backed watchdog group, found that 76 of the 100 most popular Telegram channels in Ukraine were operated anonymously.

Ukrainian officials have worried about the allegiances of Durov, who was born in Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in 2021 that the government had “reached an agreement” with Telegram after authorities attempted to block the app during a dispute over access to user data. Ukrainian officials fear Russia can get access to private data and communications on the app, pointing to examples when Russian authorities presented copies of private Telegram conversations to people under investigation.

Ukraine has not shown conclusive evidence linking Durov or the company to the Russian government, and Telegram said it had no ties to the Kremlin. The company said all examples of intercepted communications by Russia that it had investigated were the result of a confiscated device or malware, not security weaknesses of the app.

“Telegram has never been legally or physically connected to Russia,” the company said. “Telegram was founded specifically in the context of protecting user data from Russian surveillance.”

This year, disinformation on Telegram about the war was so rampant that Ukraine asked Apple to intervene. The government requested that the tech giant use its leverage to push Telegram to remove certain fake accounts run from Russia. By April, Telegram had taken down the accounts.

But the resolution came with a twist. Telegram also briefly blocked several Ukrainian government-run accounts that let citizens share information about Russian troop movements. Ukrainian officials viewed the move as a thinly veiled warning: Pressuring the company too hard could come at a cost.

“It was unspoken, but it was a threat,” Yurchyshyn said.

Telegram confirmed it took down the fake accounts after receiving a request from Apple, but said the Ukrainian channels were erroneously removed and were reinstated within hours. The company said it was developing tools to combat disinformation, including new fact-checking features.

Fedorov said in a statement that he had requested assistance from Apple in communicating with Telegram as “part of our ongoing work with all platforms that have such extensive reach and cover the war in Ukraine.”

Apple declined to comment.

After a September meeting of Ukraine’s National Coordination Center for Cybersecurity, use of the app was limited in the government and military. Some universities have also banned the app.

Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s top intelligence official, publicly warned about Telegram’s threats, but said he did not believe it should be blocked altogether. He has called for the abolishment of anonymity for administrators of large channels. Telegram has long argued that anonymity is key to protecting users.

Russia has its own concerns about Telegram. After Durov’s arrest in France in August, Russian commentators and military analysts publicly raised alarms about the country’s own reliance on the app, saying he could give Western intelligence services access to private data.

In Ukraine, Durov’s arrest emboldened efforts to curtail Telegram. Yurchyshyn said he was working on legislation to add warnings, akin to those on cigarette packets, that remind users that the information on the platform may be unreliable and that the operators of channels are anonymous.

But he acknowledged that any new rules were unlikely to diminish Telegram’s sway.

“Who wants to be the politician or leader to take responsibility for banning such a popular network?” Yurchyshyn said.