NGL.media editorial team jointly with our colleagues from GRUNT media spent two months investigating activity of the largest Ukrainian network of anonymous Telegram channel united under common brand «Trukha». Not only did we manage to find out the real owners’ names, but also get access to financial component of this network’s activity.
It turned out that hundreds of thousands dollars were transferred through crypto wallets, and certain payments to these accounts put the idea that «Trukha» is making money only from advertising and hit pieces under serious doubt.
Read this text to the end – you won’t regret it.
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As the investigation conducted by NGO «Ukrainian Institute of Media and Communication» showed, the number of Ukrainians who first of all read the news in Telegram channels doubled since the Russian invasion started in February 2022. Presently, «Trukha Ukraina» is the most popular channel with 2.8 million followers.
We studied «Trukha»s activity and found that their advertising quotes allow for earning hundreds of thousand dollars every month. It became possible due to the enormous number of readers who are reading news at this Telegram channel on the daily basis, despite its shady reputation. In June 2023 «Trukha» even received a certificate of appreciation from Kharkiv regional military administration for «fighting at the informational frontline», in spite of this channel being publicly accused of spreading fakes, supporting Russian propaganda and publishing videos or photos of Russian missile strikes impact, which is prohibited.
Dynamics of audience growth of “Trukha”
The Telegram channels network is connected to a subject of the notorious case of «Avakov’s backpacks», Volodymyr Lytvyn from Kharkiv, though it was never publicly discussed. Another Kharkiv inhabitant, Maksym Lavrynenko, is officially calling himself the only founder of «Trukha». In any case, «Trukha» became a profitable business and an influence tool. Let us tell you how it became possible.
Trukha. Beginning
The Telegram channel was created in November 2019. Initially it was called «True Kharkov» and was publishing local contents about events in Kharkiv. This mostly was the news about RTAs, murders and other situational criminal activity. «Trukha» never blurred graphic violence and wasn’t too picky about the information.
It’s special feature was that «Trukha» instantly started offering money for the contents. Readers could send photos and videos straight from the place of the incidents and get payment for that. That’s how «Trukha» managed to accumulate more exclusive contents and outdistance its competitors.
Maksym Lavrynenko from Kharkiv who calls himself founder of «Trukha» is a former less than successful actor and dancer. Lavrynenko himself claims that his friends from IT industry gave him money to promote a new Telegram channel, but he doesn’t give their names.
«I understood I needed investment to support fast growth. So, I came to my IT acquaintance, told him about the project, he said ok and that’s how the association in the IT sphere came into being [to finance the project]. The money wasn’t gigantic, but sufficient to provide for aggressive growth […] and we set a clear goal of becoming number one news channel in Kharkiv within a year», said Maksym Lavrynenko in late 2022 in his interview at Mila Ieremieeva’s YouTube channel.
Maksym Lavrynenko calls himself the only founder and owner of «Trukha» Telegram channels network (photo from Telegram)
During that conversation he shared something about his past, for example his successful experience of managing social network «VKontakte» and Instagram prior to creating «Trukha». For instance, he boasted about the «Blagopoluchiie» group that accumulated over 300,000,000 followers on VK during several years.
In his blog on Medium Maksym Lavrynenko claimed that «Trukha» was founded by three people: himself, «an IT-friend» and «marketing guru» named Serhii. Here he openly says that since the early days of his channel his followers were paid UAH 500-5,000 for contents.
According to Lavrynenko, «True Kharkov» managed to increase its audience to 190,000 in a little more than two years. That’s the number of subscribers the channel had as of the moment of the Russian army invasion on 22 February 2022.
In the same period the channel started publishing lots of information not only about the events in Kharkiv region which was being actively assaulted by Russian troops, but about entire Ukraine. «Trukha» often published photos and videos of missile strikes, getting criticism and instantaneous growth of its audience.
According to Lavrynenko, Security Service of Ukraine and military officers repeatedly contacted him asking not to publish certain information. «If it’s civilian infrastructure, we don’t publish for 3 hours, and 12 hours for the military», Maksym Lavrynenko shared the rules which apply to the channel. Still, «Trukha» administrators didn’t particularly follow them up till now.
«True Kharkov» was renamed several times since the beginning of the full-scale war and finally accepted the version «Trukha Ukraina». Presently the channel is actively publishing information about entire Ukraine – in particular, about the war, politics and high profile events. The number of advertising posts increased accordingly, and only part of the advertisement is marked.
According to the service TGStat, presently «Trukha Ukraina» has the largest number of followers among Ukrainian Telegram channels, almost 2.8 million. At the same time, the contents the channel publishes is being systematically criticized. Last year Texty.org.ua journalists analyzed these publications and found numerous cases of inaccurate or outdated information and even outright fakes being published.
When «Trukha» publish lies and receive negative comments, they either update the publication, adding the UDP abbreviation, or simply edit the post. Also, «Trukha» provides no reference to the original source, even when information comes from real mass media or other Telegram channels.
At the end of last year the governmental project «Filter» from the Ministry of Culture published an instruction helping users to understand trustworthiness of certain Telegram channels. In this publication «Trukha» was identified as an «informational dump».
Simultaneously with the development of its main channel, «Trukha» started creating new thematic and regional channels. Presently «Trukha» continues developing other projects on «Telegram», like «Dobroho vechora, my z Ukrainy» network of channels.
Who does really «Trukha» belong to?
«Trukha» remained an anonymous project for a long time, despite the rumours circulating in Kharkiv since 2019 that the channel is being sponsored by Volodymyr Lytvyn, founder of companies for promoting business Turboseo and friend of the former minister of internal affairs Arsen Avakov’s son. In 2022 Maksym Lavrynenko started being introduced as «Trukha»’s founder and owner, and «Trukha» started publishing posts on his behalf.
Despite Lavrynenko still being considered the face of «Trukha», we found out that rumours about direct involvement of Volodymyr Lytvyn were grounded, and we managed to find substantial proof.
Volodymyr Lytvyn, 36, a businessman from Kharkiv is directly involved with «Trukha», and it’s him who can highly likely be called the real owner of the network (photo from Instagram)
In autumn 2022 Maksym Lytvynenko and his colleagues launched an online course about making money in Telegram. Participants could choose between three packages: $99, $189 and premium package, «mentorship from Max», the price of which was kept confidential. 225 people took this course, and even if we presume all of them chose the minimum package, «Trukha» earned at least $22,300.
Now, the payment for the course participation was transferred to the account of private entrepreneur Smarakova Oleksandra Anatoliivna (in October 2022 Oleksandra Smarakova changed her last name to Lunina after she married Dmytro Lunin, head of Poltava Regional Military Administration). Back in 2020, before her cooperation with «Trukha», Smarakova was selling medical protective masks and made an unsuccessful attempt to run for a place in Kharkiv regional council.
Previously Oleksandra Lunina was working as a CEO of tailoring company SL.IR named after the founder of the brand, Iryna Slonevska who currently lives in Russia. And the above Volodymyr Lytvyn is an owner of SL.IR trademark, according to the information he himself provided.
Volodymyr Lytvyn became notorious several years ago after a scandal known as «Avakov’s backpacks». In 2018 he took a blame for embezzlement of 16 million hryvnias during procurement for the Ministry of Internal. He was a subject of this case together with Aleksandr Avakov (son of then-minister Arsen Avakov), but only Lytvyn received a sentence, which was suspended.
It’s not clear how close a relationship with both Avakovs Lytvyn managed to keep after the scandal, but they surely didn’t become enemies. It is evidenced by numerous «Trukha»`s publications about Arsen Avakov describing him as an expert and benefactor. These were excepts from Avakov’s interview and individual posts about him or reposts from his Telegram channel. However, there has been no mention of Arsen Avakov on «Trukha» since February 2023.
It’s more likely that the corruption scandal with backpacks for the Ministry of Internal harmed SL.IR production, for their shop in Kyiv closed, the website doesn’t work, and the pages on social networks weren’t updated for over a year.
Volodymyr Lytvyn is known in Kharkiv as wealthy but private businessman who is presumably trying to influence political situation in the region. «He personally made boast to me of having invested large sum of money into «Trukha», told us Lytvyn’s former business partners who asked to remain anonymous.
There isn’t much publicly accessible information about Volodymyr Lytvyn. The case of procuring backpacks for the Ministry of Internal was extremely high-profile, but it was the only one publicly mentioning Lytvyn. Back in his days he was unofficially named a curator of certain staff changes in Kharkiv power elite. Oleksii Kucher, Lytvyn’s defender on the case of «Avakov’s backpacks» became the head of Kharkiv Regional State Administration in 2019 and worked there for a year.
A famous Kharkiv businessman Roman Katerynchyk was Volodymyr Lytvyn’s business partner. He owned several IT and financial companies and ran for an office in Kharkiv city council from «Sharii’s party». Lytvyn and Katerynchyk founded a joint company of business promotion Turboseo in 2016. Later Lytvyn stopped being a founder, but kept warm relationship with Katerynchyk.
Back in July 2022 «Trukha» and «Truha» trademarks were registered in the name of Viktoriia Manzhos from Kharkiv. She is Volodymyr Lytvyn’s mother.
Viktoriia Manzhos with her son Volodymyr Lytvyn (photo from Instagram)
Viktoriia Manzhos with her son Volodymyr Lytvyn (photo from Instagram)
However, Maksym Lavrynenko keeps insisting he is Trukha’s owner, and he believes that trademarks registration in Lytvyn’s mother’s name considers his competitors’ machinations.
«Information about investors and people who helped develop the channel is a commercial secret. Presently, «Trukha Ukraina» and network of Telegram channels «Trukha» is owned by one person – me, Maksym Lavrynenko. I’m the only founder of the channel and its sole owner. No other person is involved into the channel or has influence on it», says Maksym Lavrynenko in his written response to NGL.media’s request. «As for the trademark, I don’t know who registered it and why. It has been done without my knowledge or consent. It can only assume that these were my competitors who have done it for personal gain.
«Trukha.Ukraina» charity foundation
In July 2022 a Kharkiv inhabitant Daniil Naumets, 21, registered «Trukha.Ukraina» charity foundation. Since that time «Trukha» network has been regularly publishing posts about fundraising and humanitarian aid. «Trukha» even placed obvious «hit pieces» in mass media (1,2,3) about its charity work.
Little is known about Daniil Naumets too. He was a student of ecological faculty of Karazin National University in Kharkiv and a chair of students’ council at the ecology institute. A year before he was trying to enrol into the Master’s degree program in Karpenko-Karyi National University of theatre, cinema and television in Kyiv, speciality «Acting producer», but failed.
Daniil Naumets is an official head of «Trukha Ukraina» charity foundation (photo by V.N.Karazin National University in Kharkiv)
Daniil Naumets was surprised when NGL.media journalist asked him about his work in «Trukha Ukraina» charity foundation. «Why are you interested in it? What will your material be about? If you’re interested in the foundation’s activity, make a request to the tax authorities and you’ll learn it all. And I don’t want to talk to you», said Naumets. This answer from the head of charity foundation promoting itself on mass media seems strange, to say the least.
According to YouControl, Oksana Obod is the one doing book-keeping for the entrepreneur Daniil Naumets. She is also keeping books for private entrepreneurs Volodymyr Lytvyn and his mother Viktoriia Manzhos. Olha Skybina, 32, is also her client, and the latter seems to be close to Volodymyr Lytvyn, as she reciprocally follows his little daughter and mother on Instagram and regularly likes their posts. Olha owns an apartment next to the one in Kharkiv where Volodymyr Lytvyn is registered, and some subscribers identified Skybina’s phone number on their phone books as «Olya Lytvyn».
Olha Skybina also co-owns «Vsim Khana» LLC which deals in informational agencies activity. Her business partner is Pavlo Fedosenko who owns a Kharkiv agency Newsroom. Jointly with Maksym Samko, an IT specialist from Kharkiv she also owns «Trafband» LLC which works in the sphere of computer programming.
Skybina’s page on LinkedIn states she has been working at Volodymyr Lytvyn’s sewing company SL.IR since 2016: First she was a head of online sales and then became a franchise sales manager.
Presently Olha Skybina writes reports on her Facebook page about giving aid from «Trukha.Ukraina» foundation to the military.
Olha Skybina is distributing aid from «Trukha» charity foundation (screenshot from Facebook)
NGL.media asked Olha Skybinska to give us Volodymyr Lytvyn’s relevant phone number. She responded she could only give him the journalist’s number. «Why are you interested in it? As far as I know, presently Maksym Lavrynenko is responsible for «Trukha» and another person is responsible for the charity foundation. But I will pass them your request», said Skybina.
Olha Skybina claims she doesn’t work in any «Trukha» structure and only receives money from the foundation to purchase the aid.
Accountant Oksana Obod stated to NGL.media that she keeps in touch with Volodymyr Lytvyn through an intermediary, but she refused to give his name or his contacts. «I’ll ask the person and in case I get the consent, I’ll call you back and give you the contacts», said Oksana Obod, but never contacted us again.
NGL.media couldn’t contact Volodymyr Lytvyn on any of the seven phone numbers that are in some way associated with him.
How much does «Trukha» earn?
«In reality, it’s one of the most effective media businesses in Ukraine now. They make money from advertisement, coverage, hit pieces and black PR. They can also earn on crosses exchanging promotional posts between Telegram channels through promoting one or other resource», explains the media expert Oksana Moroz. «They have quite a wide range of monetizing and it depends on how much viral impact they have and how much they will support their audience».
According to the advertising placement system Telegator, one advertising post on the main channel «Trukha Ukraina» presently costs 93,000 hryvnias, and the price on regional «Trukha» channels ranges within 1,500 and 14,000 hryvnias.
What specifically caught our interest was the advertisement on «Batallion Monaco» channel (1.1 million subscribers) which also is a part of «Trukha» network. Advertisement here costs 27,000-30,000 hryvnias. Content for both channels is not much different, but if the main «Trukha» channel at least filters their advertisements in some way, one can post any contents on «Battalion Monaco» for money.
NGL.media tried to place two orders to advertise on «Trukha»: one commercial and one political to compare prices. We were asked to pay 80,000 hryvnias for the advertisement of another Telegram channels, claiming it was a special-offer price, and it was agreed that the publication will be instant.
Using a different account, we asked «Trukha» to publish a cooked-up negative information about a mayor of one of the large Ukrainian cities. The advertising agent instantly suggested that we need to publish it on «Battalion Monaco» channel for 30,000 hryvnias, and if it «goes well», we’ll discuss the possibility to publish it on «Trukha». However, we were insisting on publishing it on the main channel, so we started negotiating and finally received approval to publish a slightly watered-down version emotional epithets were edited, but the cooked-up facts remained unchanged of adverse publicity on «Trukha Ukraina» channel for $4,000 (around 150,000 hryvnias).
NGL.media tried to calculate «Trukha’»s profits from advertising. Within three months between 1 June and 31 August 2023 inclusive the main channel «Trukha Ukraina» published almost 200 similar publications. Judging from the minimal rates, it had to bring the channel owners at least $600,000.
Other channels of this network, including regional one, are also making money from advertising and bring their owners tens of thousand dollars per month.
Activity of Telegram channels in Ukraine is not regulated, they don’t fall under the definition of media. However, if a Telegram channel receives profit, it should be paying taxes. In case of Telegram channels, administrators can register a private entrepreneur’s status or create a legal entity providing advertising services.
«A Telegram channel owner can receive profit from advertising, subscription fees and other types of activity. This activity makes it mandatory for a taxpayer to register as a private entrepreneur or create a legal entity, get registered with a tax authority and choose a system under which the entity is paying taxes», explains Ievhen Vorobiov, lawyer with Human Rights Platform NGO.
According to him, if a Telegram channel receives money to its bank accounts, the bank can also inquire into the source of funds and even block the accounts in case illegal profits are suspected.
Still, the practice shows that most Telegram channels, especially anonymous ones, don’t haste to leave the black market. Moreover, there are no mechanisms to control what is happening on Telegram.
The timeline of the creation of a network of channels related to «Trukha»
«You can’t come somewhere and [officially] register a Telegram channel. It doesn’t fall under the category of media or any other type of activity. It’s not regulated in our country. That’s why channels administrators usually register as private entrepreneurs and advertising activity as their code under Classifier of economic activities, and that’s the way they work», explains Bohdan Tymoshchuk, a expert for Telegram channels development.
Nothing personal, just business
While trying to purchase advertising we received payment details from «Trukha» managers. It turned out they receive payments to various crypto wallets. The main advantage of this type of payment is that crypto wallets are anonymous and it’s virtually impossible to track the ultimate owner.
Using help of the experts in the sphere of crypto currency, we studied the lists of transactions from seven crypto wallets belonging to «Trukha», which had been active between two and six months. Following this, they are deleted and new ones are created. We are talking about significant amounts. For instance, $427,000 USDT crypto currency with the exchange rate to USD 1:1 transferred through one of the crypto wallets (presently inactive) during five months. The transactions amounts varied quite a lot: from several hundred dollars to $30,000 at a time.
It should be emphasized that the numbers of crypto wallets NGL.media had found are hardly all that «Trukha» is using for financial operations.
Any income received in cryptocurrency is subject to taxation, but it’s not that simple with virtual currencies.
«In 2021 Ukraine passed the law «On Virtual Assets», but no amendments to the Internal Revenue Code to make taxation of cryptocurrency operations possible have been made yet», says Serhii Bondarenko, an investment expert. «Still, nowadays it’s possible to trace even operations with cryptocurrency. Cyberpolice and other agencies keep raising their awareness, and numerous tools to monitor what’s happening in blockchains appear. If someone was doing something illegal, sooner or later it will be revealed.
NGL.media also found that «Trukha» is using another way to receive payments – through private entrepreneurs. Some businessmen who had ordered advertisements on «Trukha», shared details of these private entrepreneurs with us. One of these was Oleksandra Lunina, a previously mentioned business partner of Volodymyr Lytvyn. Two more entrepreneurs who received money were Maksym Dalekorei and Denys Rozengart.
Oleksandra Lunina, Maksym Dalekorei and Denys Rozengart who received money for advertisements on «Trukha».
Maksym Dalekorei from Zakarpattia, 20, works as an actor and a model and studies at Karpenko-Karyi National University of theatre, cinema and television in Kyiv, majoring in «Cinema production organization». In June 2023 Dnipropetrovskyi center of professional and technical education of the State Employment Service signed an agreement with Dalekorei to advertise on «Trukha Dniepr» channel for 8,000 hryvnias. Maksym Dalekorei refused to answer journalist’s questions about his cooperation with «Trukha» and referred to it as «confidential».
Denys Rozengard, 26, a singer from Volyn, didn’t answer NGL.media calls.
The creators of «Trukha»: a scheme of connections between people
«Trukha» obviously became a successful business project, which reflects on its employees’ salaries. If a year ago the channel administrators were offered 15,000-20,0000 per month, recently the network was looking for an employee offering 40,000 hryvnias.
«Trukha» publishes its relevant positions on popular job search platforms, Work.ua and Robota.ua. Vacancies on Work.ua list an IT company Game Project as the employer. «We are dealing in development of online games and managing Telegram channels», says the company description.
There’s no open source information about an IT company Game Project company. This name is only present on Work.ua platform. Representatives of the largest programmers network DOU claim they never heard about this IT company.
«Trukha»’s vacancies on Robota.ua website are places from Gambling project company gambling – games of chance (Eng.) . Its description states the company develops software.
A journalist of NGL.media tried to get a job at «Trukha» and sent a cooked-up CV to become a manager for regional Telegram channels. After several days he received the answer from Olha Skybina’s email (please be reminded that she previously denied working for «Trukha») NGL.media journalist was holding all further communication about conditions of work with Svitlana Zamenska, «Trukha»’s recruiter.
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«We can use a private entrepreneur after probation period. We usually pay to your bank card until the probation lasts. We can agree to pay in USDT or any currency to your bank card. As a rule, we pay the salary twice a month using bank details», Svitlana Zamenska explained the working conditions.
On the contrary, Maksym Lavrynenko refused to discuss conditions of payment «Trukha» employees’ salaries. Still, he assures the salary is paid exclusively in hryvnias. «Settlements between the staff are made in national currency by transferring funds to the employee’s bank account under civil contracts», states the written answer he provided to NGL.media’s request.
Bohdan Tymoshchuk, a expert for Telegram channels development, explains «Trukha»’s success by two aspects: investment and hype.
«You won’t be able to create a channel like «Trukha», even if you have millions’ investment. For there’s such a notion as viral impact. With hype you can attract more subscribers and make it cheaper. Luckily, there won’t be the same hype anymore as «Trukha» had with the first attacks. In general, to create a channel with million subscribers now, one should invest at least $300,000. Also, you need to have sound creative approach and a strong team», says Tymoshchuk.
P.S. The day before this investigation was published, «Trukha» and its satellite channels tried to launch a Telegram attack to discredit its results (examples 1, 2), accusing NGL.media of practicing paid journalism and being controlled by Andrii Sadovyi, Lviv mayor. We have to intention to start a discussion with anonyms. Such insinuations are just ridiculous. One can simply read what we publish.
editor Oleh Onysko, infographic Nazar Tuziak; Dmytro Usyk also participated in work on the material