Telegram is under attack: NABU is experiencing an invasion of bots after Operation Midas

After Operation Midas, which exposed large-scale corruption at Energoatom and shook up government offices, a systematic campaign to discredit NABU and SAPO was launched on Ukrainian Telegram. Anti-corruption agencies called the operation one of the most effective in 2025, but in parallel with its successes, a wave of identical posts appeared attacking investigators and prosecutors.

This is reported by “Ukrainska Pravda” with reference to an investigation by the public initiative “People with Cardboard Boxes”.

Activists analyzed nearly two thousand posts on the largest Telegram channels and discovered a coordinated network working against the anti-corruption infrastructure. These are the same million-dollar channels that have been publishing paid attacks on opposition leader Petro Poroshenko and European Solidarity for years, as well as on independent journalists and public activists.

According to the study, more than half of the publications about NABU in top Telegram channels are negative. Synchronous posts with identical wording appear simultaneously in eight of the ten largest channels. The absolute leaders in terms of negativity were Times of Ukraine and “All-Seeing Eye: Ukraine”, while INSIDER UA topped the rating in terms of the number of mentions of NABU – 221 publications, of which 64% are negative.

Some channels, in particular “Trukha. Ukraine”, are deleting their posts retroactively, which, according to researchers, may indicate an attempt to hide coordinated participation in the special operation after it reached its peak phase.

Activists note that such a campaign is not like chaotic bursts of information. In nine months, negative publications have collected more than 257 million views – a scale impossible without centralized infrastructure and significant funding.

Investigators do not name a specific “director”, but point to a range of possible customers: some Ukrainian political groups that are afraid of anti-corruption cases, Russian influence structures interested in undermining trust in Ukrainian institutions, as well as business networks that make money from “sinkholes” in Telegram.

All these interests can operate in parallel, reinforcing each other. The result is the same: a blow to NABU and SAPO – institutions that have repeatedly proven their ability to expose corruption at the highest level.

It was previously reported that foreign media reacted to Operation Midas.

We remind you that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office are conducting a large-scale operation “Midas” to expose corruption in the energy sector.

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