Ukrinform

The Ukrainian National Information Agency, Ukrinform, is Ukraine’s national state news agency. Its institutional history dates to 16 March 1918, when the Ukrainian Telegraph Agency began operating; the present legal entity was registered on 13 November 1996. Since 1 January 2026 it has been within the management sphere of the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting.

Media assets

News agency: Ukrinform

Ownership and governance

Ukrinform is constituted as a state organisation. Its state property and founder are recorded under the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting.

The accessible governing document is Ukrinform’s 2020 charter. It provides for a Director-General, a collegium and a Supervisory Board. The Director-General approves the collegium’s membership, while the Cabinet of Ministers approves the composition of the Supervisory Board.

Cabinet Resolution No. 1509 of 19 November 2025 moved Ukrinform, the Multimedia Platform for Foreign Broadcasting and the Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security from the Ministry of Culture to the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting, with the relevant provisions taking effect on 1 January 2026. The State Committee now holds policy responsibilities covering foreign broadcasting, international promotion and strategic communications.

Oleksandr Kharchenko served as General Director as of 2022. He was succeeded by Oleksii Matsuka, who served from November 2023 until May 2024. Serhii Cherevatyi has been Director-General since 24 May 2024 and remained the registered head in September 2026.

Source of funding and budget

Ukrinform is predominantly state-funded, with commercial revenue chiefly from content sales and distribution.

Official programme documentation records agency-specific allocations of UAH 250.2461 million in 2024, UAH 250.2463 million in 2025 and planned expenditure of UAH 271.3571 million in 2026.

The figure of approximately UAH 819 million is an aggregate for Ukrinform and the Multimedia Platform for Foreign Broadcasting after separate telethon expenditure is excluded. It should not be reported as Ukrinform’s own allocation.

Registry-filed accounts report UAH 16.043 million in revenue and UAH 891,000 in net profit for 2025, with assets of UAH 75.579 million and liabilities of UAH 63.618 million. The precise state-funding percentage should not be calculated until the accounting treatment of budget transfers and operating revenue is reconciled.

Editorial independence

Ukrinform’s charter assigns it responsibility for reporting state policy, distributing official material from the Verkhovna Rada, the President, the Cabinet of Ministers and other bodies, and providing information to public authorities.

Formal legal safeguards exist. Article 4 of Ukraine’s Law on Media prohibits censorship and unlawful interference by state and local authorities. The 2020 charter separately provides that Ukrinform operates independently of political parties and public organisations.

Those protections are not matched by an appointment or oversight structure independent of government. The Director-General is appointed by government, the Director-General controls the collegium’s membership, and the Cabinet approves the Supervisory Board’s composition.

In May 2024 Ukrainska Pravda published documents and testimony alleging that the then management circulated coverage instructions and lists of undesirable speakers, predominantly opposition figures. The Council of Europe subsequently registered an alert concerning Ukrinform’s editorial independence.

AI and digital policy

State Media Monitor could not identify a published Ukrinform policy governing generative artificial intelligence, mandatory human verification, model provenance or audience disclosure, and could not establish the extent of adoption in production.

State Media Monitor did not establish whether Ukraine has enacted a generally applicable requirement to label news items produced or assisted by artificial intelligence.

Classification rationale

Ukrinform remains classified State-Controlled Media (SC).

It is state-owned and state-governed. Ukrinform is constituted as a state organisation, with the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting recorded as its founder. The accessible 2020 charter provides for a Director-General, a collegium and a Supervisory Board. The Director-General controls the collegium’s membership, while the Cabinet approves the Supervisory Board’s composition.

It is predominantly state-funded. Official programme documentation records UAH 250.2463 million for 2025 and planned expenditure of UAH 271.3571 million for 2026. Registry-filed accounts report UAH 16.043 million in revenue for 2025, although the accounting relationship between that revenue and budget transfers should be clarified before calculating a precise state share.

Its institutional mandate and governance tie its editorial activity to the state. The charter assigns Ukrinform responsibility for reporting state policy, distributing official material and providing information to public authorities. Article 4 of the Law on Media prohibits censorship and unlawful state interference, and the charter requires independence from political parties and public organisations. Those protections are not supported by an appointment or oversight structure independent of government. Allegations published in May 2024 concerning coverage instructions and lists of undesirable speakers provide direct evidence of attempted editorial interference under the preceding management.

September 2026