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Also: Austrian special forces versus Ukrainian journalists, a jackal express for Felix Redka, and the plague in Russia.
A Ukrainian YouTube folk saying goes: no matter how eventful the beginning of the week may be, its end will make you forget everything that was discussed on the platform before then.
So, what did we have? The fallout from the plague in Russia and Ukraine’s “doves of peace” from last week, a jackal express involving stand-up comedian and co-creator of the Comic Plus Historian YouTube channel Felix Redka, and Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klychko’s call for people to leave the capital… But then Donald Trump comes along with his diesel show and advice for Ukrainian voters. And that’s it — YouTube, hold on tight. Trump immediately pushed both Redka and even Klychko out of the trending topics, and the platform is now bursting with opinions and predictions about the fate of Trump and his old-new partner, Putin.
“A plague on both your houses!” as the classic put it. But while the plague makes its way toward American shores aboard Russian shadow-fleet tankers, accompanied by “humanitarian” diesel, I suggest we take a look at what people were discussing on YouTube during the second week of October.
I’ll start with an event that took place on Thursday and is unlikely to be forgotten, at least by Ukraine’s professional journalistic community — even if Trump and Putin get married.
On the evening of October 8, the editorial team of Ukrainska Pravda reported that Mykhailo Tkach, head of its investigative journalism department, and cameraman Yaroslav Bondarenko had been detained in Vienna while carrying out an editorial assignment related to the search for fugitive Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko.
There was no contact with the journalists until the following day, when Mykhailo Tkach was released and spoke with Ukrainska Pravda’s editor-in-chief, Sevgil Musaieva. It turned out that the two Ukrainian journalists had been detained in the Austrian capital as if they were terrorists, with the use of excessive force. Mykhailo Tkach did not even immediately realize that he was dealing with the police, as the whole episode resembled a kidnapping more than an arrest. Yaroslav Bondarenko sustained injuries that required hospital treatment. Incidentally, the cameraman received medical assistance only late in the evening, approximately six or seven hours after his detention. He was operated on while handcuffed, as he later wrote on Facebook.
The charges brought against Tkach and Bondarenko were just as extraordinary.
“At the beginning of the interrogation, I was given a document to sign. As far as I understand, it was the equivalent of a formal notice of suspicion. It listed three articles under which we were accused. One was espionage in the interests of Ukrainian military intelligence. Another was participation in a criminal organization. And the third concerned causing harm to Austria,” the journalist said.
Naturally, the first thing that came to mind was the cash-in-transit workers detained by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán ahead of elections in his country. But Austria is not supposed to be Orbán’s Hungary, so it was difficult to avoid a certain degree of shock.
Perhaps the most important part of the conversation was Tkach’s reflection on what had actually happened.
“In various countries, people featured in our investigations have tried, in one way or another, to obstruct our lawful journalistic activities by manipulating things and making up all sorts of stories. I believe that in this case, too, someone we were investigating may have misled the Austrian law enforcement system by providing information about some alleged cooperation with representatives of Ukrainian intelligence or the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” he said.
“Do you have any suspicions about who it might have been?” Sevgil asked.
“I do. Let me repeat that we were generally working on finding Ruslan Kravchenko. So it seems to me that it could have been either him or people connected to him. There are no other options, theories, or hypotheses at the moment,” Tkach replied.
I’m now curious to see how this scandal, which will surely erupt once everything comes to light, might affect a former prosecutor general’s chances of obtaining political asylum in Austria, should he apply for it.
The conversation between Sevgil and Mykhailo was watched by 709,600 viewers in a single day. Something tells me that journalists are not the only ones concerned about this story.
Speaking of topics that may seem strictly professional but can actually interest everyone: the Carte Blanche with Oleksandr Bilinsky channel released a video about the media business during wartime. The host’s guests were Kateryna Kobernyk, editor-in-chief of Babel; Andrii Boborykin, executive director of Ukrainska Pravda; and Viktor Kyshchak, head of the digital editorial team at Forbes. The discussion lasted two hours, during which the guests managed to cover a host of behind-the-scenes topics, from how media outlets are currently funded to Russian influence on Ukrainian media before the full-scale invasion.
Oleksandr Bilinsky also entertained viewers by asking his guests to draw cards bearing the name of a media outlet, a media phenomenon, or a well-known journalist and comment on it. This game, in fact, gave the channel its name, Carte Blanche. At times, the guests had to tread carefully, apparently trying not to say too much — or, conversely, not to give away too clearly that they did not have much to say.
For example, Andrii Boborykin drew a card bearing the name United24 Media.
“Oh, let’s have something less positive!” Kateryna Kobernyk urged.
“Do you think everything before this was positive?”
“Well, yes. The Kyiv Independent, Portnikov… And nobody feels sorry for TBPN [a podcast acquired by OpenAI — Detector Media],” Kateryna listed the previous cards.
“United24 is fine too. A decent Ukrainian state propaganda project. I think that in terms of return on investment, it’s probably quite effective. Good numbers,” Boborykin said.
“Does United24 consider itself propaganda?” Kobernyk asked.
“Yes. We organized a conference and invited Valentyn Paniuta, who runs the project. I think he openly says that it’s propaganda. I don’t know what else to say. It seems to me that the Ukrainian state could stop spending money on other foreign-language broadcasting projects. The state’s foreign-language broadcasting platform, with its GAZE project, still exists, actually, and some money is being spent there. With United24 already in place, I don’t think there was any need to invest in something else. But it exists,” the guest said, perhaps remembering that they had agreed to be a little less positive.
Next, it was Kyshchak’s turn to draw a card, and he picked “the telethon.”
“I’ve never watched it. Not once. I don’t understand why anyone would,” Kyshchak said.
Later, he drew a card with three names of YouTube channel hosts, and that raised questions, too.
“Emma Antoniuk, Yuliia Borysko, Marychka Padalka. Am I supposed to say something about all of them?” he asked.
“No, it’s a trend: TV presenters are creating their own channels,” Oleksandr Bilinsky explained.
“But they’re all different. Marychka Padalka — what’s the word? Unbundling. The unbundling of 1+1. Yuliia Borysko, as I understand it, is a grant-funded project. Emma Antoniuk is an independent, author-driven project. Her co-host… Sorry, I’ve forgotten,” Viktor Kyshchak said.
“Yana Brenzei,” Kobernyk prompted.
“Yes, Yana Brenzei, who studied alongside me, just a couple of years younger. What am I supposed to say about that?” the guest asked again.
“Just what you think about it overall,” the host replied, now with considerably less enthusiasm. “Do TV presenters adapt well to YouTube and new formats, or not?”
“They’re not TV presenters; they’re just presenters. Maybe I’ll draw another card, because with this one…”
The next card featured the name of Russian journalist and media executive Leonid Bershidsky, who had worked in Ukraine for some time, including launching Forbes there. Kyshchak simply handed the card to Kobernyk, as she had crossed paths with Bershidsky at several publications and could say something about him.
They also talked about YouTube during the meeting, for which I am personally grateful.
“I hate it when people make AI-generated YouTube thumbnails. My aesthetic sensibilities want to throw up,” Kateryna Kobernyk said, succinctly and clearly describing the problem.
“But you do understand that the problem isn’t AI itself, but the practices that existed before it — what designers used to do? The dataset was trained on that kind of crap,” Kyshchak replied.
“I don’t know who writes the prompts, but the results look simply disgusting,” Kateryna said.
I hope YouTube content creators hear this and take it to heart.
The video had attracted just over a thousand views in two days, but it certainly has room to grow.
Now, back to the original plan. The first major topic on the week’s list was the plague in Russia. The most unexpected expert in this field, so to speak, turned out to be diplomat and politician Roman Bezsmertnyi, appearing on the Khid Tuzova program on Apostrof TV.
When the host asked how dangerous the situation was, the guest unexpectedly said there was no need to worry.
“The most accurate phrase I came across in the Western press was this: ‘There is no point worrying about the spread of the epidemic because the plague epidemic has been contained by force.’ And that makes it clear why military units were being sent to the Irkutsk region. It’s a typical Soviet system: as soon as something happens, they cordon off the region, and nobody gets out alive,” Bezsmertnyi said.
He added that Shipilova (an employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute who died for unknown reasons — Detector Media) had most likely been involved in developing biological weapons, and that “it’s ridiculous to call her a laboratory assistant.”
“She took part in major international meetings with people working in China and Japan. She was involved in serious projects related to preventing infections. Obviously, she was part of a group working with pathogens for weapons, and there was a leak,” Bezsmertnyi suggested.
One could accuse the diplomat of promoting conspiracy theories here, but when it comes to Russia, reality often surpasses the most incredible nonsense.
The video received 39,400 views in two days.
There was plenty of interesting discussion about the “doves of peace” — that is, government representatives who suddenly came out in favor of urgently negotiating peace with Russia last week.
For example, this was discussed by Ukrainska Pravda journalists Roman Romaniuk and Roman Kravets on the UP-2 channel.
“Why did Mr. Terekhov, Mr. Hetmantsev, and Mr. Honcharenko all suddenly start talking about the need to seek compromises and urging people to think about ‘peace’ rather than continuing the war? What was that about?” Kravets began.
“It’s both a very simple and a complicated question. Ever since these pseudo-political projects were created — because, formally speaking, they don’t exist — everyone has understood that they are separate political projects being developed with the next Verkhovna Rada elections in mind. Pollsters have been measuring their support separately for a long time, and pollsters usually don’t get these things wrong,” Romaniuk replied.
“These are all attempts to find a particular political narrative. The question is why this is happening now. If you look at the process of launching a political project purely from a tactical perspective, you realize there are two options. Either, a month before the election, you suddenly launch something like a Popular Front, run a highly dynamic and aggressive campaign, and ride the emotion and momentum of a rapid start into parliament. Or, if you have a different strategy and there is no way of knowing the exact date — that the election will happen in a month — you have to work systematically and gradually capture a certain segment of the electorate. So the ideal time to get going is six or seven months before an election campaign begins,” Romaniuk explained.
The two also discussed whether the “doves of peace” had a single handler and, if so, whose interests that person was promoting. In short, Romaniuk believes there is no single coordinating center and that Russia is not behind it.
The video was watched 47,500 times in one day.
The same question came up in another episode of UP.Chat, where host Tetiana Danylenko was joined by Anastasiia Radina, chair of the parliamentary Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy; Iryna Romaliiska, a journalist with Butusov Plus at Censor.NET; and Vitalii Shabunin, head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center.
“On the one hand, Zelenskyy and Arakhamiia’s MPs are refusing to vote for the laws we need [to receive financial assistance from the EU — Detector Media], meaning we won’t get the money we need to keep the country running and finance the war. Obviously, this undermines our ability to fight. At the same time, Honcharenko, Hetmantsev, and company are emerging with their ‘peace’ party, their capitulation party. So we’re being squeezed from both sides. And then ‘anonymous’ Telegram channels supposedly linked to the Security Service of Ukraine start pushing Honcharenko’s talking points — not even Hetmantsev’s. It all fits together somehow, doesn’t it? Prove me wrong,” Shabunin challenged the other guests.
The participants responded with silence.
“I’m not going to try, although the picture doesn’t look quite so clear-cut to me,” Iryna Romaliiska finally broke the silence.
Who could have imagined that Donald Trump himself would be the one to contradict Shabunin? At the end of the week, the US president accused Zelenskyy of being unwilling to reach a peace deal with Russia. But that came later. In the meantime, the video had attracted 130,600 views.
“Doves,” “hawks,” and even “roosters” were also discussed on the ProUA platform, where journalist Denys Kazanskyi met with political scientist Oleh Saakian.
“Is Ukraine really experiencing a political split over the question of ending the war?” host Denys Kazanskyi asked.
“If by a split you mean the depth of the disagreements, then yes. But if we mean a split in which something breaks into roughly equal parts, then definitely not in our case. I’d say a certain breakaway is taking place. A small group is splitting off, which could be described as the ‘party of betrayal’ or the party of unacceptable compromises with Russia. But is a new political force emerging? No. The niche is too marginal, and there are too many people competing for it. Seven forks on one plate,” the political scientist said.
The conversation was watched 43,300 times in a single day.
Finally, the question of possible compromises, negotiations, and ending the war was discussed in another episode of Novyi Vidlik, a talk show on Suspilne’s Pershyi channel, which, of course, is also available on YouTube.
The guests of hosts Andrii Dikhtiarenko and Vlasta Lazur were members of parliament Ruslan Horbenko from Servant of the People and Rostyslav Pavlenko from European Solidarity; servicemember Hennadii Druzenko; journalist Serhii Harmash; and, notably, one of the “doves of peace,” MP Oleksii Honcharenko.
Despite the variety of guests and opinions, the discussion proceeded calmly, if not rather boringly. Even Honcharenko failed to stir things up, apart from reprimanding Horbenko for using the dismissive term “sons-in-law” to refer to Trump’s representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
“A member of the ruling party is standing here. How can you call them ‘sons-in-law’? Correct yourself right now. We respect Americans; they are our key partners. Please keep yourself under control,” he scolded his colleague.
Overall, Oleksii Honcharenko explained his position in detail.
“I proposed two things. First, I proposed a public discussion about what might be acceptable. I think it’s very important, and we need to talk about it. For example, I consider restrictions on the Ukrainian army unacceptable, because the main guarantor of our security is the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Obviously, stopping along the front line is acceptable to us, while recognizing the occupied territories as Russian is clearly unacceptable. We can go through every point like that. NATO. I very much want Ukraine to become a NATO member, but nobody is willing to let us in. And NATO itself is in a deep crisis. We need to have this discussion because our situation is deteriorating with every passing month.
The second thing I proposed was a different format for negotiations. If the issue of Donbas prevents us from reaching an agreement to stop attacks at sea, in the air, or on energy infrastructure, then let’s set Donbas aside. Instead of one big negotiating track where we try to reach one big agreement, let’s create 20 separate, sector-specific tracks, moving at different speeds. That way, we could secure an end to attacks at sea, protecting our ports and our economy, because the economy is dying,” Honcharenko said.
For some reason, this reminded me of a fable about a tailor and a greedy customer who asked him to make seven hats from enough fur for just one. The tailor duly produced seven hats the size of apples.
But seriously, proposing to set the issue of Donbas aside looks like a cruel joke, because the aggressor country’s position has not changed and has been stated repeatedly by the entire Russian leadership: Ukraine must withdraw from Donbas first.
The talk show received 53,400 views in two days.
For a detailed analysis of the situation surrounding Felix Redka, whose shows have already been canceled in three cities in western Ukraine over his allegedly pro-Russian (“vatnik”) stance, head to Oksana Moroz’s How Not to Become a Vegetable channel and compare her conclusions with your own impressions. You don’t have to agree — Oksana probably won’t take offense.
In her view, Redka’s main problem is that, consciously or not, he is contributing to a split in Ukrainian society.
“He gets defensive and starts aggressively attacking people who tell him, ‘Wait, you made a mistake here.’ And that’s very strange, because these jackal expresses are going to keep coming. They will only deepen the divisions in society. I’m far from accusing him of working for Russia, but I find it rather strange that he stubbornly refuses to understand this. Especially given that he is quite active in the information space and, I would say, does a pretty good job of promoting his own position. He isn’t afraid to come out and speak, he isn’t afraid to engage with people, and he isn’t afraid to discuss the issues people criticize him over — but for some reason, he doesn’t address everything,” Oksana Moroz said.
Incidentally, the Comic Plus Historian podcast, which I don’t recall ever having anything bad to say about, has not been updated for a month and a half. Perhaps this is connected to Redka’s Odyssey tour, which covers not only Ukraine but many other countries as well. It is now unclear whether the project will resume.
Oksana Moroz’s video about Redka received 91,400 views in four days.
Finally, a major part of last week’s YouTube discussion focused on protecting cities — or, more precisely, their lack of protection — from Russia’s hellish attacks, with Kyiv receiving particular attention. The topic was discussed by aviation expert Valerii Romanenko and Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Energy Research Center, on the LIGAnet channel; Serhii Sukhomlyn, former head of Ukraine’s State Agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development, on Ukrainska Pravda; Taras Chmut, head of the Come Back Alive Foundation, on DW Ukrainian; and even Yurii Butusov, commander of a UAV company in the 23rd Assault Regiment of the 2nd Khartiia Corps, on the Yest Pytannia channel.
It would be difficult to summarize everything the experts said, so I recommend watching the videos yourselves. Butusov captured the general mood.
“It’s only after a hole has been blown in a bridge that our response begins. That’s when people notice the problem. It’s a telling example of how we only start doing something after the enemy has already done something first. Then there is a major public outcry, followed by a huge media reaction. Only at that stage do we start making government decisions,” he said.
Taras Chmut backed the Kyiv mayor and advised people that, even if they were not going to move out right away, they should at least start preparing and have a “Plan B” and a “Plan C” in reserve.
Most of the videos mentioned received hundreds of thousands of views. Butusov’s video, in particular, was watched 334,500 times in three days; Chmut’s received nearly 283,000 views in two days; and Romanenko’s attracted 260,000 views in five days. Only Kharchenko and Sukhomlyn remained below the 100,000-view mark, with 78,100 views in two days and 61,400 views, respectively.
As for Trump’s diesel deal with Russia, the US president’s intervention in Ukrainian elections, and the energy truce between Russia and Ukraine that he suddenly announced on Sunday evening, YouTube experts will only have their say in the coming week.
In the meantime, while we wait for some interesting opinions, you can watch a short but telling video by journalist Vadym Denysenko on his channel, titled “Why Everyone Deceives Putin.”
Russia’s leader uses this excuse so often that the phrase has become a meme.
“‘The Russian World’ is an ideology in which history has completely defeated philosophy, and history itself is adjusted to suit the specific objectives of the day. In Putin’s interpretation, the entire history of Russia — which, let me remind you, is itself an ideology — is the story of how Russia was deceived, but kept reclaiming the same ‘true’ history that, supposedly, must never be rewritten. Deception as the cause of all defeats is a foundational myth of modern Russia. Without understanding it, it is very difficult to analyze what Vladimir Putin says and does,” Vadym Denysenko explained.
So, if — or when — the energy truce is violated, we already know what Putin will say: “We were deceived.”
The video received 6,100 views in three days.
