People’s Deputy from the banned pro-Russian party “Opposition Platform – For Life” and currently the head of the “Platform for Life and Peace” parliamentary group Yuriy Boyko began to actively publish videos on TikTok, spreading pro-Russian narratives.
In particular, this was about “radicals”, the ban on the UOC (MP) and the Russian language.
On December 14, Boyko published a video on TikTok against the background of icons, where he condemned “radicals” who “began to demolish monuments across the country, rename cities, forbidding people to speak their “native” language and go to church of their liking.
“Today we see that this movement continues, violence against people continues. That is why more and more people support us – those who oppose such violence, stand for unity in the country, for supporting people,” the former co-chair of the banned OPZh also stated.
At the same time, he did not name any specific facts, survey results, and neither did he even specify who he implied by the word “us”.
In the comments, Ukrainians are outraged that the pro-Russian politician is still a sitting people’s deputy in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
Deputy Commander of the Third Separate Assault Brigade, Major Maksym Zhorin, stated on Telegram that Boyko’s actions are a direct consequence of the fact that some pro-Russian individuals in Ukraine were left unpunished.
“They already smell the elections and decided to come to the surface. Why? Because they were allowed to. We left our families behind, we lose our best comrades every day, we risk our lives and health in order to defend our country from the enemy. But the pro-Russian forces in Ukraine are no less an enemy than the Russian soldiers at the front. And this enemy is given the opportunity to speak up,” he noted.
At the same time, Zhorin stressed that the grounds for the detention and arrest of Boyko, as well as other figures from the OPZh, are “more than enough”.
After that, the head of the President’s Office, Andriy Yermak, wrote on Telegram: “Some politicians forget that it is precisely the defense of Ukraine and the victory over Russia, and not the circulation of Russian narratives, that is the key goal now.”
In turn, the head of the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council Andriy Kovalenko emphasized in his social media post that “it is strange to hear from Yuriy Boyko in 2024 words about ‘radicals’, some ‘language bans’, theses about the church, which are usually spread by Russians, and about violence against people, without mentioning Russia”.
“I’d like to remind Boyko that the only ones who commit violence against Ukrainians are Russians… And it would be very useful if the people’s deputy (if, of course, he works in the interests of Ukraine) constantly recalled this publicly. However, we see something different. And this is frankly outrageous, to put it mildly,” added Kovalenko.
According to Detector Media, since October, former members of the banned OPZh began to visit the new channel of propagandist Lana Shevchuk, former host of the banned NewsOne channel, the banned “Nash” TV, and the YouTube channel, which was also recently blocked over spreading Russian propaganda.
Since November, Boyko’s videos, including excerpts from an interview with Lana Shevchuk on classic electoral topics, have been circulating on TikTok. Boyko also runs a YouTube and Telegram channels that have not yet been blocked.
Four pro-Russian politicians appeared in nine videos posted by the propagandist in two months. They talk about sensitive, electorally sensitive topics: alleged corruption, poverty, forced mobilization, and de-Russification. In nine interviews, not a single member of the OPZh mentioned the guilt of Vladimir Putin or Russia as a state in the war unleashed against Ukraine, limiting themselves to the term “occupiers,” “the Kremlin’s belligerent policy,” “the aggression of the Russian army,” or the phrase “the neighbors came in.”
