At secret cybersecurity meetings, Ukrainian officials discuss imposing new restrictions on Telegram, – The New York Times

Ukrainian authorities discussed imposing restrictions on the messaging app Telegram during a secret cybersecurity meeting earlier this year.

This information according to The New York Times, citing two informed sources.

The Ukrainian intelligence service concluded that the app poses security risks to the country and that Russia uses it to spread disinformation, conduct cyberattacks, hack systems, perform surveillance, and guide missile strikes with greater precision.

Ukraine is now working to reduce its reliance on Telegram. In September, authorities ordered the military, senior officials, and staff connected to critical infrastructure to limit their use of the messenger. Many important communications have since shifted to encrypted apps like Signal, the NYT reports.

“We understand that we are dependent,” admitted Ukrainian parliament member Yaroslav Yurchyshyn in an interview with the newspaper.

However, it will be challenging for Ukraine to abandon the app: around 70% of Ukrainians get their news from Telegram channels, the report noted.

In October, Ukraine’s National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council called for Telegram to be fully banned in Ukraine, “just as ‘Odnoklassniki,’ ‘VKontakte,’ and all services of the ‘Yandex’ and Mail.ru companies were previously blocked.”

In February, Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Center for Countering Disinformation at Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, stated on his Telegram channel that “banning/blocking Telegram in Ukraine is impossible.”

Telegram has also faced scrutiny from Russian authorities. In 2018, a court ordered the app to be blocked for refusing to provide decryption keys to the FSB for user messages. However, two years later, the restrictions were lifted after Telegram expressed a willingness to “counter terrorism and extremism,” according to Roskomnadzor. In March 2024, following a terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall, the Kremlin urged Telegram’s founder Pavel Durov to take stricter measures to monitor activity on the platform to ensure Telegram “does not become a tool in the hands of terrorists.”