Presidential Office 'reports' on bloggers have been made public by Yulia Mendel, who once served as Zelenskyy's press secretary.

What the released Presidential Office 'reports' show about bloggers and Telegram channels

According to 5 канал: Yulia Mendel, a former press secretary for Ukraine's president, has released screenshots of tables she describes as Presidential Office reports focused on bloggers and Telegram channels. According to Mendel, the materials contain data on 2 YouTube channels, 14 Facebook accounts, and 6 Telegram channels.

The Telegram channels named in the list include Rezident, Krokodil, Kartel, Zhenshchina s kosoy, ZeRada, and Legitimny.

What the reporting found, and how the SBU responded

An investigation by Radio Svoboda's journalists found that ten of the eleven available Facebook posts were published on December 9, 2020 - exactly one year after the Normandy Four summit in Paris. Most of those posts praised President Zelenskyy's approach to Donbas, backed the ceasefire, and accused Russia of holding up negotiations. Some authors also reminded readers that the Minsk agreements were signed under President Petro Poroshenko.

All six Telegram posts also appeared on December 9, 2020, and five of them were published within a 48-minute window, between 14:28 and 15:16. Their content centered on the Minsk accords and criticized the previous president.

In February 2021, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) stated that the Rezident, Legitimny, and Kartel Telegram channels belonged to an agent network of anonymous channels created by Russia's intelligence services. In July 2022, the SBU, the National Security and Defense Council, the Main Intelligence Directorate, and other state bodies officially classified Rezident, Legitimny, Kartel, and Zhenshchina s kosoy as hostile resources financed and coordinated by Russia. This means at least four of the six Telegram channels on Mendel's list have been formally identified as pro-Russian influence tools.

Notably, the tables themselves provide no evidence of direct orders from the Presidential Office or of any payments made to the channels' authors. As Nataliya Lygachova put it,

“the only thing that can be said is that these bloggers appear to have been working in line with the Presidential Office's agenda. Claiming they did so for money is absolutely not possible.”

At the time of publication, the Presidential Office had not commented on the lists Mendel released.

The documents have stirred debate about the power of bloggers and Telegram channels to shape public opinion, especially amid sensitive political moments in Ukraine. The official designation of several channels as pro-Russian only heightens concerns about how media influence operates in the country's information space and raises broader questions about the relationship between state institutions and private online platforms.