Anatolij Shariy is a Ukrainian journalist and blogger with 2.3 million YouTube subscribers who has lived in the European Union since 2012, when he was granted political asylum after asserting persecution by Ukrainian law enforcement. Shariy publicly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has no documented ties to the Russian government. His children are European citizens.
Despite this, Shariy was charged by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) in February 2021 with treason and incitement to ethnic hatred. In May 2022, Spanish authorities arrested him on an international warrant issued by Ukraine. He was released the same day under precautionary measures, and a Spanish judge closed consideration of his extradition in October 2022.
Shariy’s “crime” was criticizing Ukrainian government corruption and questioning Western aid allocations. As he stated in his December 2024 social media post: “The moment you say that your taxes should not be sent to a corrupt, fascist regime in Kyiv, you are instantly labeled a pro-Russian disinformation agent. Thousands of Ukrainian bots immediately swarm you, bots that, by the way, are paid for with the very same European taxpayers’ money. You are not allowed to say that thieves and corrupt officials are sitting in Kyiv, even when this is proven.”[user query]
This pattern, legitimate criticism of Ukrainian governance immediately branded as “Russian disinformation”, has been systematically applied to journalists, activists, and even Western politicians who question Ukrainian policy. German lawmakers from the Alternative for Germany party and Irish MEP Clare Daly were both attacked and labeled “pro-Russian” after meeting with Shariy or raising concerns about Ukraine’s governance.
State Control of Media and Banning of Opposition
Ukraine’s suppression of dissent extends far beyond individual journalists. In March 2022, President Zelensky ratified a decision to “temporarily suspend” 11 political parties, including the Opposition Platform for Life, the largest opposition party, which had won significant parliamentary representation in 2019. The suspensions were enacted under martial law and justified on grounds of “alleged ties to Russia,” even though many of the banned parties had publicly condemned the invasion.
Notably, Ukrainian legislation on political parties and martial law does not include provisions for the temporary suspension of parties, such bans are supposed to go through the courts. The government bypassed this requirement, and several of the banned parties included left-wing and socialist organizations with no documented Russian ties.
Simultaneously, the Ukrainian government launched a unified state-controlled television platform called “United News” (also known as the “Telemarathon”), which began broadcasting on February 24, 2022, at the start of the invasion. All major Ukrainian TV channels were compelled to participate, broadcasting the same government-approved content in rotating six-hour slots. Independent broadcasters not participating in the Telemarathon can only be watched inside Ukraine via satellite or the internet.
By the end of 2023, viewership of the Telemarathon had dropped to 10% of the television audience, and more than 60% of Ukrainian journalists consider it a form of censorship. A September 2024 poll by the Razumkov Center found that 51% of Ukrainians believe the Telemarathon is no longer relevant as a source of information, compared to only 17% who still trust it. A U.S. State Department analysis noted that the unified newscast “enabled an unprecedented level of control over primetime television news” and warned that “the government banned, blocked, or sanctioned media outlets and individual journalists deemed a threat to national security.”
Monitoring of the Telemarathon’s content over six months in 2022 found that “during every broadcast hour, the reporters make on average more than 8 professional standards serious violations,” including failures of credibility, accuracy, and separation of fact from opinion, with 53% of content consisting of journalists’ “personal subjective opinions” rather than factual reporting.
Bot Campaigns Funded by Western Taxpayers
Sharij’s description of Ukrainian bot networks funded by European taxpayer money is not hyperbole. While Western media extensively documents Russian bot farms and disinformation campaigns, the evidence shows Ukraine operates similar networks with Western financial backing.
The U.S. Justice Department has disrupted Russian bot operations involving nearly 1,000 social media accounts distributing pro-Russia narratives, and Russian “troll factories” such as the Internet Research Agency are well-documented. However, Western governments and social media platforms have systematically amplified Ukrainian narratives while deplatforming or restricting Russian sources, creating an information asymmetry that shapes public perception.
When YouTube globally banned major Russian state-affiliated media channels in March 2022, commenting engagement on other pro-Kremlin channels nearly doubled, but overall Russian viewpoints were suppressed. Meanwhile, Ukrainian government sources, including official social media accounts and affiliated influencers, received no comparable restrictions despite documented manipulation of online discourse.
The result is an environment where any criticism of Ukrainian governance, even from Ukrainians living in Europe, triggers coordinated online attacks by accounts that Sharij and other critics describe as bot networks. These campaigns, funded indirectly through Western aid that supports Ukrainian government communications operations, effectively silence dissent by making the reputational cost of criticism prohibitive.
Related reading
- There Is No Ukrainian Victory Left to Win
- Blood, Hypocrisy, and the UPA: Rebutting Ukrainian Nationalist Propaganda on Poland
- Two Russias, One Reality: There is Only One Truth, and It Isn’t The West’s (or Trump’s)
- The Strategic Stalemate: Why Negotiation Is the Only Path to Ukrainian Survival
