Petition to strip Potap of honorary title gains necessary votes: Zelensky responds

The president’s response was published on the electronic petitions website.

Kateryna Taran’s petition was published on August 28. It received over 25,000 votes, which is necessary for consideration by the president. The author of the petition requested that Potap’s public activities be checked and, if there are legal grounds, to initiate the procedure for depriving him of his state award.

In his response, Zelensky noted that the title “Honored Artist of Ukraine” is a state award. According to the law, it can be revoked, in particular, upon a court conviction or upon a decision of the National Security and Defense Council to apply an appropriate sanction. Proposals regarding such sanctions can be submitted by the Cabinet of Ministers and the SBU.

“I sent the aforementioned petition to the Prime Minister of Ukraine Serhiy Koretsky and the acting head of the Security Service of Ukraine Oleksandr Poklad with a request to process the issue raised in the petition in accordance with their competence in the manner established by law,” the president noted.

Thus, the current issue is about further consideration of the issue by the relevant state bodies, and not about the already adopted decision to strip Potapenko of his title.

Potap received the title of “Honored Artist of Ukraine” in 2020. In September 2026, the Verkhovna Rada also considered an appeal to the president to deprive him of this award, but the necessary number of votes for the decision was not obtained.

After the petition appeared, Potap himself stated on Instagram that he was ready to voluntarily renounce the title, calling the calls for its removal a “witch hunt.”