The “Trukha” Telegram channel network is trying to discredit activist and blogger, former advisor to Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov — Serhiy Sternenko.
On July 26, Sternenko posted that he had received evidence that “Trukha” may be advertising a network of fraudulent bots on Telegram. According to him, by clicking on the botʼs links, a person becomes a victim of attackers who can extort money, bank details, or personal data.
Over the next three days, July 27-29, the Telegram channel “Trukha-Ukraine” dedicated 10 posts to Sternenko. They were also shared by other channels of the “Trukha” network. According to the monitoring service “LetʼsData”, identical posts about Sternenko were shared by at least 18 Telegram channels. In the first day, they collectively collected 3.4 million views.
"Trukha" claims that the Sternenko Community Charitable Foundation lacks almost UAH 706 million, that he steals 30-40% of each donation, wears expensive clothes and drives an armored Range Rover worth UAH 15-17 million, and that he uses donations for his foundation to install bots on the "Trukha" channel. "Trukha" does not provide evidence for its claims.
Examples of Trukhaʼs posts about Serhiy Sternenko.
When asked by Babel, Serhiy Sternenko said that he linked this information campaign with the attacks on Mykhailo Fedorov. In his opinion, the same people who opposed the anti-corruption changes in the Ministry of Defense are behind this. He considers Mykola Udyansky, whom Sternenko called the new owner of “Trukha” in June (Forbes Ukraine also wrote about this, citing sources), to be a fictitious leader.
Sternenko also indicated that he saw a lot of political advertising on "Trukha" by Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov and Minister for Veterans Affairs, former head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration Vitaliy Kim, which indicates the politicization of the network.
During the war, there is a danger that someone can acquire such large information resources, in particular Russians or pro-Russian forces inside Ukraine. Therefore, he believes that it is necessary to legally regulate the activities of such resources, because data on the owners of any large media, including Telegram channels with an audience of millions, should be open.
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