TV host Oleksandr Shelest believes everything pseudo-experts tell him: Anglo-Saxons dividing the world, the regimeʼs dogs, and slavery in Ukraine. Who is he?
- Authors:
- Sofiia Korotunenko, Glib Gusiev
- Date:
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«Babel'»
Oleksandr Shelest is a Ukrainian TV presenter who has been talking to “experts” on Viktor Medvedchuk’s NewsOne channel since 2018. When the channel was banned, Shelest began posting interviews on his YouTube channel “Olexandr Shelest”. His guests criticize the Ukrainian government, speculate on the topic of mobilization, and tell conspiracy theories — and Shelest agrees with them. His videos have garnered millions of views and are promoted by Russian propaganda Telegram channels such as PolitNavigator and MediaKiller. In 2024, Ukraineʼs Center for Countering Disinformation (CDC) added Shelest’s TikTok account, where he posted excerpts from broadcasts, to a list of pages spreading Russian propaganda. CDC head Andriy Kovalenko says that CDC is already working with the Security Service of Ukraine to block Shelest’s YouTube channel. Babel journalist Sofia Korotunenko researched Shelestʼs biography, watched many of his broadcasts, and tells us who he is and what the guests of his channel say.
Who is Oleksandr Shelest?
Shelest is 36 years old, he is from Lysychansk city of the Luhansk region. In 2009 he graduated from the Faculty of Ukrainian Philology of Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University. In the same year he became the host of the news, the morning show "Pidyom" and the quiz show "Vash Khod" of the Luhansk Regional Television and Radio Company.
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Announcement of the morning show "Pidyom" with Alexander Shelest and his co-host Darya Nashchokina.
In February 2014, Shelest was the host of a separatist rally in Luhansk, thanks to which the south and east were supposed to secede from Ukraine, and called on the crowd to shout: "We support the referendum!" Shelest later made excuses and said that it was a call for decentralization, and the rally took place because "many territories" did not agree with the Maidan protests in Kyiv.
In 2015, Shelest became the editor-in-chief of socio-political programs on the LOT channel. He continued to host the show "Pydyom" and other programs, such as the TV quiz show "Native Ukraine". In 2017, LOT changed its name to "UA:Donbas", and a year later Shelest became the channelʼs line producer. In May 2018, Shelest commented on journalism in Luhansk region on Hromadske Radio. He changed his rhetoric — he called for European values and said that the media should adhere to standards and protect freedom.
Oleksandr Shelest hosts the TV quiz show "Native Ukraine" on the channel "UA:Donbas", 2017.
Shelest works on TV channels that have been sanctioned
In December 2018, Shelest got a job at Viktor Medvedchukʼs NewsOne TV channel. On it, he hosted news programs, the program "Ukrainian Format. Afterword" and the socio-political project "Shelest Show", where invited experts discussed current events. In each episode, they criticized the current government and promoted Medvedchuk and the OPzZh party. For example, in December 2021, guests mentioned the pressure the government put on Medvedchuk. In his final speech, Shelest concluded that "the regime is not moving along democratic rails."
Guest commentators also spread pro-Russian theses on Shelest’s programs. In October 2020, pseudo-experts Valentyn Zemlyansky and Oleksandr Lazarev said that the parliament and President Zelenskyy were doing nothing to resolve the “conflict in Donbas.” In another episode, Lazarev said that Ukraine was under the influence of the United States and could become their colony if no action was taken.
In February 2021, when the National Security and Defence Council imposed sanctions on NewsOne, former employees of Medvedchukʼs channels launched the TV and YouTube channel "First Independent". It is not known exactly what programs Shelest hosted, because the channel only worked for an hour and a half, the NSDC imposed sanctions on it the next day. YouTube blocked "First Independent" several times, and in February 2022 removed its account from the platform. At the end of 2021, Shelest switched to the Politeka YouTube channel.
Shelest launches its own platform for pseudo-experts
In August 2022, Shelest began posting interviews on his own YouTube channel, "Aleksandr Shelest" (in Russian). His first guests were astrologer Vlad Ross, Russian opposition politician Gennady Gudkov, and pseudo-political scientists and Medvedchuk loyalists Mykhailo Chaplyga and Oleg Posternak.
The channel currently has 777,000 subscribers, and all of its videos have garnered nearly 450 million views. According to analytics site Social Blade, an average of 13,000 users subscribe to his channel each month, and his videos garner over 15 million views. The host also has a backup channel, “SHELEST. Accents,” with 182,000 subscribers. He reposts some of the shows from the main channel to it — there are now over 2,000 of them, and they have garnered nearly 55 million views.
Most of Shelestʼs guests are pseudo-experts. “Babel” has already written about many of them. These are Roman Svitan, Rostyslav Kravets, Oleg Soskin, Igor Mosiychuk, Fikret Shabanov, Plamen Paskov, Mykhailo Chaplyga, Mykyta Vasylenko, Yuriy Shvets, Gennady Balashov, and Valery Solovey.
The most popular interview on the main channel was watched 2.4 million times. In it, “Canadian expert” Fikret Shabanov (actually a conspiracy theorist from Azerbaijan) convinces Shelest that “the Saxons and Beijing” will divide the world in three months. The host only asks questions to clarify the details of the prediction.
Shelest does not contradict his guests, he just nods his head and sometimes smiles. He agrees with all the guests, even if they contradict each other. For example, the host agrees with Shabanov, who denies that “America is fighting Russia with Ukrainian hands,” and with Chaplyga, who believes it.
Shelest spreads conspiracy theories and pro-Russian theses
Shelest also often spreads pro-Russian theses and conspiracy theories to incite pseudo-experts into emotional conversation. Here are some of his quotes from various broadcasts:
- "If someone had said at the beginning of the [full-scale] war that there would be such a Busification in Ukraine, we wouldnʼt have believed it. Are we slaves? We have a slave system? The war has changed us so much... Here they are, the dogs of the regime, have come out. The people are silent. And they didnʼt apply such methods to the Russians, who were considered oppressed by tyranny. Everything is completely different [on the contrary], it turns out?"
- " Conspiracy insiders have a place to be... There is a rumor that [when journalists were kicked out of the hall], Mr. Xi [Jinping] kindly patted [Vladimir] Putin on the cheek. How do you assess this contact? How important is it for Ukraine?"
- "How disgusting the way the president of my country looks and speaks. This affects the state of internal affairs. We here want the Constitution to be implemented, human rights to be protected, and the the military commissariat officials to be punished, as they break legs and arms and generally kill people in torture chambers."
- "So, the Russians and the [Anglo]Saxons are on the same page?"
- "The valiant police sentenced a man to three years for distributing [pornography]... But he wonʼt go to the army. Itʼs all a whitewash — they come to the police and make up some fictitious cases. Itʼs cheaper than fleeing across the border or paying off."
“Babel” wrote to Shelest to find out why he invites pseudo-experts on air and why he makes such statements. He has not yet responded to our request.
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