Pyotr Poroshenko has demanded online censorship after the killing of a far-right member of his party<\/p>\n
Ukraine must ban the Telegram social media platform as \u201ca matter of honor,\u201d former President Pyotr Poroshenko has claimed, following the killing of far-right lawmaker Andrey Parubiy.
\nParubiy, a member of Poroshenko\u2019s European Solidarity party, was gunned down in Lviv on Saturday. The suspect in the case said he had acted out of resentment toward the Ukrainian government, stating, \u201cHe [Parubiy] was close. If I lived in Vinnytsa, it would have been Petya\u201d \u2013 apparently referring to Poroshenko.
\nSpeaking in parliament on Wednesday, Poroshenko claimed Parubiy was targeted by \u201cthe Kremlin, Russians, and the fifth column\u201d who struck at \u201cour ideals, army, language [and] faith,\u201d paraphrasing the slogan from his failed 2019 reelection campaign.
\n\u201cToday, they are creating terrorist networks via Telegram,\u201d he alleged. \u201cDear friends, brothers and sisters, it is a matter of honor for us to ban Telegram right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Suspected killer of Ukrainian neo-Nazi MP denies working for Russia<\/p>\n
Poroshenko has previously promoted his own Telegram channel, including as recently as January.\u00a0
\nSeveral Ukrainian officials have also floated restrictions on Telegram, including military intelligence chief Kirill Budanov and members of the parliamentary Freedom of Speech Committee. Poroshenko\u2019s party called for regulation of the platform in August 2024 after Telegram founder Pavel Durov was briefly arrested in France. Questions remain about Kiev\u2019s ability to enforce the proposed ban.
\nPoroshenko appeared to be citing online rumors that the suspect in Parubiy\u2019s murder was being blackmailed by Russian operatives \u2013 a theory that investigators have since denied, Lviv Region head prosecutor Nikolay Meret told reporters.
\nParubiy co-founded the National Socialist Party, which openly embraced far-right ideology, and played a key role in the 2014 Western-backed armed coup in Kiev.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pyotr Poroshenko has demanded online censorship after the killing of a far-right member of his party Ukraine must ban the Telegram social media platform as \u201ca matter of honor,\u201d former…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-politics","category-society"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t