The SSU has collected evidence against Andrey Rudenko, a propagandist of the sanctioned rossiya-1 and rossiya-24 TV channels, a collaborator who is publicly justifying russia’s armed aggression.

Rudenko is a member of the so-called ‘putin’s pool of journalists’ and regularly praises kremlin’s aggressive policy.

Since russia launched its full-scale invasion, Rudenko has been fulfilling moscow’s orders as a ‘military correspondent’ of russia’s central TV channels in the temporarily occupied areas of Donetsk region.

There, he prepares stories and conducts ‘live broadcasts’, in which he tries to discredit Ukrainian defenders and provides distorted information on the developments on the eastern front.

The enemy propagandist also has his Telegram channel with 300,000 subscribers, where he called, among other things, for speedy ‘accession’ of the temporarily occupied part of Ukraine to russia.

According to the investigation, back in 2014, while living in Donetsk, Rudenko was one of the first to support occupation. At the time, he actively expressed pro-kremlin views during street protests and in front of russian mass media.

Later, he was included in the staff of ‘special correspondents’ of the kremlin media holding ‘VGTRK’ [all-russia state television and radio broadcasting company] and in this status has been preparing commissioned and staged stories from the temporarily occupied Donbas.

SSU-initiated examinations have confirmed the suspect’s subversive activity for the aggressor’s benefit.

Based on the collected evidence, the SSU has notified Rudenko of suspicion under three Articles of the CCU:

• 110.2 (encroachment on Ukraine’s territorial integrity and inviolability);
• 436-2.3 (justification, recognition as lawful, denial of russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine, glorification of its participants);
• 111-1.6 (collaboration).

The offender is hiding in russia and in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine. Comprehensive efforts are underway to bring him to justice for his crimes.

The investigation was carried out under the procedural supervision of the Prosecutor General’s Office.