Dark sociology: why Russian Telegram is popular in Ukraine

Source: Author’s Facebook page

All sociological studies in recent years show the same trend: the main source of news and information in general for Ukrainians is Telegram. Russian Telegram.

Which was created by Russians, maintained by Russians, financed by Russians (including the Kremlin), partially controlled by the special services of the ERF and so on. And at the same time it is the most popular social network among Ukrainians. I can’t understand how this is possible, but it is a fact, so ignoring it was somehow Fedorov-like.

But today is not about Telegram. I have written about its numerous risks a hundred times. Today I want to share the results of a spontaneous study that highlighted the dark and unexpected side of Telegram’s popularity in modern Ukraine.

In 2017, in the third year of the war against the bloody federation, the popularity of the Russian social networks “Odnoklassniki” and “VKontakte” was virtually destroyed by their inclusion in the sanctions lists of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. As a result, in 2025 they are not even mentioned in research and sociology.

But in the eleventh year of the same war, the Russian social network Telegram does not feel any discomfort in a country that is (supposedly) hostile to it – Ukraine.

Unofficial sources see the reason for such a strange situation in the pragmatism of Zelensky’s IT team (in particular, one of his “managers” M. Fedorov): in their opinion, Telegram is an important tool for them to a) stay in power now and b) stay in power in the next elections.

But here’s what comes out: there may actually be more TG channels that criticize Zelenskyy than those that are loyal to him (see screenshot).

Of course, this is not exact. I just asked ChatGPT and he tried to give me at least a rough estimate of the generally possible ratio. And by the way, anyone reading these lines can do this.

Just ask any language model a question like mine: “How many Telegram channels are there that criticize President Zelensky? And how many Telegram channels are there that support President Zelensky?”

Of course, the results can and will vary across language models, depending on the question asked. And the answers can take a long time. My request for a full analysis of 100+ channels is still not complete – it’s been over a day.

Let’s not forget about the imperfections of “artificial intelligence.” And the full-fledged “political season” has not yet begun, with its active “wandering” of social networks. But it seems that no one in the OP has even thought about such a thing yet.

And it turns out that the “game of TG channels” can be played not only by one person. That millions of dollars poured into “positive bloggers” and TG channels may not bring the desired effect at all.

The bottom line is that the Zeko-Manda does not control Telegram, its servers, algorithms, and infrastructure at all – it only parasitizes on the uncensored nature of its content and the lack of fight against fakes and bot farms.

Just as the mini-digit is parasitic on the lack of personal data protection in Ukraine – and is installing one arbitrary application after another. But I have also talked about this many times (and will continue to talk about it).

So, these same features of Telegram – the almost complete absence of restrictions on content and weak security rules – can be used by other people as well.

For example, millions of concerned citizens. Who doesn’t like stupidity, ignorance, outright nepotism, processions, arbitrariness, authoritarianism, corruption, an incredible thirst for power, and much more in the manner of public administration?

It turns out that those dissatisfied can create TG channels criticizing the government and subscribe to them. Thousands of channels. Without “black cash” from the Office. Free of charge. Voluntary. Purely based on convictions. And there may be even more such channels than those artificially created by the Office.

Because the elusive and poorly calculated concept of “(il)legitimacy” hovers in the air: immeasurable, vague, uncontrolled.

Because no regime can hide the truth, which will inevitably come out. Attempts to “close” the information space, distort it, fill it with disinformation and “positive news”, and purge it of unprofitable information are doomed to strategic failure in our time. It was much easier to do this in the days of print media – but even then, the truth still eventually came out.

Now, creating an artificial, profitable information reality is practically mission impossible. It’s like covering yourself from the rain with your hands: you can cover the top of your head with your palms and convince yourself that it helps – but in the end you’ll still get soaked through.

And even a superficial, unprofessional study of the “Telegram channels” plane immediately demonstrates this.

But it is possible to undertake such research more thoroughly, more deeply, and more broadly.

I wish good luck to those who want to dive into this.

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