SBU names 12 Medvedchuk subordinates tasked by Russia to discredit Ukraine in the media

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has named 12 individuals who were tasked by Russia to attack Ukraine in the media, led by former MP and treason suspect Viktor Medvedchuk, through his organization Drugaya Ukraina, the SBU reports.

The suspects — Medvedchuk and his “subordinates” hiding in Russia — have been notified of the suspicion in absentia. The group includes:

• Denys Zharkykh
• ⁠Artem Marchevsky
• Roman Kovalenko
• Ruslan Kalinchuk
• Yakiv Taksyur
• Yuriy Dudkin
• Ruslan Kotsaba
• Natalia Khoroshevska
• Bogdan Giganov
• Oleg Yasinsky
• Olexandr Lazarev.

Evidence against these persons was collected from various sources, including a testimony by Kyrylo Molchanov, a "politics expert" from Medvedchuk's media pool who was deported from Poland this year and is now under arrest in Kyiv and cooperating with the investigation.

According to the investigation, Molchanov worked for two Russian special services at the same time: the FSB and foreign intelligence. It was established during the probe that one of his “direct contacts” was Lieutenant General Georgy Grishaev, first deputy chief of the Russian FSB's Service No. 5. The correspondence between the two was discovered on the suspect’s phone.

“Under orders from the occupiers, Molchanov and his 'colleagues' justified Russian aggression, discredited Ukraine internationally, and destabilized the internal politics in our country's partner states. Moreover, Molchanov himself organized pro-Kremlin street protests in the EU, calling for the international support for Ukraine to be cut,” the SBU says.

According to the case files, Viktor Medvedchuk oversaw these activities personally. Namely, he got personal approval from Vladimir Putin to create the organization Drugaya Ukraina; the latter then instructed the FSB to coordinate the project.

Medvedchuk personally "staffed" the pro-Kremlin association, which included top managers and propagandists from the former MP's sanctioned TV channels. Most of them had left for Russia at the beginning of the full-scale war, the SBU remarks.

On Medvedchuk’s instructions, they produced and distributed anti-Ukrainian content via Telegram channels, YouTube, and the Kremlin’s international mouthpiece Voice of Europe, which was sanctioned by the EU in 2024.

The Kremlin's propagandists picked up these messages instantly upon release and amplified them on their media resources. It was also established that Medvedchuk personally funded the criminal organization and, for this purpose, closely cooperated with the Putin administration and Russian government institutions.

The defendants were notified of suspicion under several articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:

• Part 3 of Article 109 (public calls for forceful change or overthrow of the constitutional order or take-over of government, dissemination of materials with any appeals to commit any such actions committed by an organized group);
• Part 2 of Article 111 (treason committed under martial law);
• Part 6 of Article 111-1 (collaborationism);
• Part 3 of Article 161 (violation of citizens' equality based on their race, nationality, regional affiliation, religious beliefs, disability, or other grounds, committed by an organized group);
• Part 3 of Article 436-2 (justification, recognition as lawful, denial of Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine, glorification of its perpetrators, committed by an organized group).

Separately, Kyrylo Molchanov was notified of suspicion of Part 2, Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (high treason committed in wartime) for working with the enemy's intelligence. He faces life imprisonment with confiscation of property.

Previously

On April 1, 2025, the SBU announced that Kyrylo Molchanov, a Russian agent and “politics expert” in Viktor Medvedchuk’s media pool, had been brought back to Ukraine. According to the SBU, Molchanov left for Russia in 2022, becoming a key ideologist of the Kremlin’s media projects. He was detained during a trip to Poland and deported to Ukraine.

Molchanov was notified of suspicion under two articles: justification, recognition as lawful, denial of Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine, glorification of its perpetrators (Part 3 of Article 436-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine); collaborationism (Part 6 of Article 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

In May 2024, the SBU exposed a cell of the pro-Kremlin political project Drugaya Ukraina, run by former MP, treason suspect Viktor Medvedchuk, in Kyiv.

Skhemy journalists learned that fugitives from Ukraine, such as policy commentators from now-closed pro-Russian TV channels, local council MPs from the OPFL, and political strategists charged with treason and separatism were joining the political movement Drugaya Ukraina, created by treason suspect Viktor Medvedchuk in Russia after his swap. They managed to evade punishment and flee Ukraine, with some leaving after February 24, 2022.

In the spring of 2024, the special services of several EU countries, including Poland and the Czech Republic, exposed a Kremlin-funded spy network that used the website Voice-of-Europe.eu to spread disinformation.

The Russian agents' task was to promote Russia's policy in Europe and harm EU countries and structures primarily by means of peddling disinformation, in particular about Russia's war on Ukraine. Voice-of-Europe.eu posted pro-Russian articles, interviews, and commentaries on international politics.

The Czech Republic reported that Viktor Medvedchuk secretly funded Voice of Europe, remotely instructed Marchevskyi, who de-facto runs the company, and used Marchevskyi to pay off journalists and covertly support select European Parliament election candidates.

The Czech government later added Artem Marchevskyi, the Voice of Europe, and Viktor Medvedchuk to the national sanctions list. The sanctions are designed to target a pro-Russian network that attempted to launch an influence operation in the Czech Republic.

On April 8, 2024, the State Bureau of Investigation reported having exposed assistants to MPs from the outlawed party OPFL who were working for Russia. According to a UP source, one of them was the CEO of Channel 112, Artem Marchevskyi. In May 2024, Slovakia granted asylum to Marchevskyi.

On May 27, 2024, the EU introduced sanctions against Viktor Medvedchuk, former host of his TV channel Artem Marchevskyi, as well as the media platform Voice of Europe, which Marchevskyi runs.