HUR or Chatbots of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, SBU or the Security Service of Ukraine, or the Digital Transformation Ministry disappeared from Telegram. They gathered information on Russian troops in occupied territories. They have been unavailable as of April 29.
Telegram is the most popular messaging application in Ukraine. It has played a key role in maintaining communication channels with citizens living in Russian-occupied territories.
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency’s Telegram chatbot, t.me/gur_official_bot, facilitated communication. It connected with residents of Russian-held areas and those interested in joining the struggle against Russian forces.
People could post information about Russian military positions, equipment, air defenses, troop movements, and more on the channel.
There are also other chatbots of the SBU and the Digital Transformation Ministry. These are the t.me/stop_russian_war_bot and t.me/evorog_bot.
Konstantyn Ryzhenko is a Ukrainian journalist. He first reported on the disappearance of the chatbots on April 28. They remain unavailable on Telegram as of 8:20 am local time on April 29.
The bot has confirmed to had been blocked by Ukraine’s military intelligence agency.
On its official Telegram channel, the agency wrote that the management of the Telegram platform unreasonably blocked a number of official bots that opposed Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine. This includes the Main Intelligence Bot.
The agency has stressed that the situation does not impact the security of users’ personal data. However, they warned against Russia for creating fake bots with the same names. According to military intelligence, they are moving the bot to other platforms. They reminded users that they can still use Signal, WhatsApp, or Proton email instead.
The Russian-born founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, stated that Telegram users in Ukraine can expect certain changes regarding access to some channels. He referred to them as general news or propaganda channels.
