According to a top authority On Friday, Ukraine has prohibited the use of the Telegram messaging service on official devices used by military troops, government officials, and vital workers, according to a top authority. It is believed that Russia can spy on users’ chats.Â
According to a statement from the National Security and Defense Council, the limits were made after Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency, showed the council proof that Russian special services might eavesdrop on the site.
However, the head of the Security Council’s center for misinformation countering, Andriy Kovalenko, stated on Telegram that the use of app in Ukraine is prohibited only for official devices—not to personal phones.
Telegram has immensely grown in importance as a source of information and is largely used in both countries since Ukraine was invaded by Russia in February 2022.
At the same time, security officials of Ukraine have expressed worries about its usage in the strife on several occasions.
Tekegram, established in Dubai, was started by Pavel Durov. A Russian-born businessman who departed Russia in 2014 due to his refusal to abide by orders to close down opposition communities on his since-sold social media platform VKontakte.
Durov was detained upon his arrival in France in August as part of an investigation into offenses including child pornography, drug trafficking, and fraudulent Telegram transactions.
According to a statement from the Security Council, Budanov had shown that Russian special services had access to both user data and Telegram communications, including ones that had been deleted.
“I have always supported and will continue to support freedom of speech, but the issue of Telegram is not a matter of freedom of speech; it is a matter of national security.” Budanov stated.
Telegram said in a statement following the announcement of the decision that it had never revealed any user’s personal information or message content.
“Telegram has never provided any messaging data to any country, including Russia. Deleted messages are deleted forever and are technically impossible to recover.” Telegram stated.
The statement indicated that all the occurrences of what it called “leaked messages” were in fact “the result of a compromised device, whether through confiscation or malware.”.
In Ukraine, there are over 33,000 active Telegram channels, according to the Telemetrio database.
Key decisions are reported on Telegram by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. He is a member of the security council, military commanders, and local and regional leaders. Regular updates on the war are published on Telegram.
According to estimates from Ukrainian media, 75% of Ukrainians use the app for communication, and as of the end of the previous year, 72% of respondents considered it to be a major source of information.
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