Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council has announced that it is banning servicemen and officials from using on their official devices the very popular Telegram messaging application founded by Russian Pavel Durov, as it believes that Russian intelligence services may have access to the correspondence of users of the application.
“It has been decided to ban the installation and use of Telegram on the official devices of government officials, military personnel, security and defense workers, and companies operating critical infrastructure,” the Council said in a statement.
The military “often use it to discuss confidential work issues,” a senior Ukrainian security official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“It’s a big source of information leakage because Telegram is very easily hacked” by the Russians, he explained. The meeting of the National Security and Defense Council, which took the decision, was attended by representatives of the secret services of Ukraine.
The head of Ukraine’s military intelligence service, Kirill Budanov, said there was “documented information” showing that Russian intelligence services “have access to Telegram users’ personal correspondence, even deleted messages, as well as their personal data.”
Representatives of the Ukrainian security services have assured us that Telegram is used by Moscow “for cyber-attacks, for the dissemination of phishing and malicious software, for the geographical location of users, the correction of missile strikes, etc.”, according to the announcement of the National Security Council and Defense.
However, the ban only applies to the devices used by the military and officials, not their private devices.
Pavel Durov, who founded the messaging app in 2013 and is its CEO, was arrested in France in August and charged with posting illegal content on the app.
The 39-year-old Russian billionaire, who holds several passports, including a French one, is currently not allowed to leave France.
The app has officially pledged to never reveal information about its users. It is widely used in Russia, Ukraine and many other countries, both for official and private communications.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posts daily messages there, as do his ministers and various branches of the military.
On the Russian side, it is used by the Ministry of Defense, senior officials and pro-war bloggers, as well as representatives of the exiled opposition.
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