Thread by @P_Kallioniemi

In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce a Ukrainian media personality and propagandist, Diana Panchenko (@Panchenko_X). She’s best-known for betraying her own country by peddling anti-Zelenskyy and anti-Ukraine propaganda and disinformation for the Kremlin.

1/22

Panchenko was born in 1988 in the Mykolaev Oblast in Ukrainian SSR in 1988. She studied publishing and editing at the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and later graduated from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv with a degree in law.

2/22

After graduating, Diana worked briefly for the news site . Between 2010 and 2015, Panchenko was a presenter for KyivTV, but she found her true calling as a pro-Kremlin propagandist after she was hired by a national “news channel” called NewsOne.

3/22 Gazeta.ua

NewsOne was part of the Novony media group, that was unofficially owned by politician Viktor Medvedchuk through his associate Taras Kozak. Medvechuk is a close ally to Putin, and his main mission in Ukraine was to prepare the country to become a puppet state of Russia.

4/22

After this, Panchenko gradually started promoting apologia for the Russian annexation of Crimea and broadcasting pro-Kremlin narratives about the Russian-directed “separatist movement” in Eastern Ukraine, suggesting that it was escalated by the Ukrainian state.

5/22

NewsOne was terminated in 2021 due to anti-Ukrainian activities by Zelenskyy and the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. This didn’t stop Medvedchuk and Kozak, as they quickly launched another news channel, First Independent, hiring Panchenko as a presenter.

6/22

First Independent didn’t last long, though, as it was shut down only after one hour of air time. After this, Panchenko became a fervent opponent of Zelenskyy, blaming the government for censorship and defending Medvedchuk. After Russia launched their full-scale invasion,…

7/22

…Panchenko quickly launched a YouTube channel on which she reported from the Russian-occupied territories. She produced a powerful pro-Kremlin propaganda piece “From Kyiv to Donbas”, in which she framed the Ukrainian government as the main culprit for the war.

8/22

Apparently Panchenko lived in Moscow for a while, but is now living in Dubai, where she’s still producing propaganda and spreading disinformation on behalf of the Kremlin. Before commiting treason, Panchenko wiped her previous Telegram activity,including messages comparing…
9/22

…Putin to Hitler and referring to Russian soldiers as fascists. Today, these messages could land her in a Russian prison for years, as it did in case of Russian poets Artyom Kamardin and Yegor Shtovba.

10/22

But once the Kremlin finds a high-quality propagandist, they won’t let go off them easily. They even gave her an interview with the Belarussian dictator Lukashenko, who naturally blamed Ukraine for the war, further claiming that Putin doesn’t have “imperial aspirations”.

11/22

Panchenko regularly quotes her own popularity on Youtube, claiming that her 1,6 million followers are an acknowledgement of her being right. According to Diana, her channel is the “the most popular in Ukraine and among Russian-speaking audiences worldwide”.

12/22

Diana joined X/Twitter in May 2024, and she immediately started her tirades against Zelenskyy and the 2022 peace negotiations that were, according to her, sabotaged by Boris Johnson. They were not and Russia has broken pretty much every treaty with Ukraine in the past.

13/22

And Diana REALLY wants to ride on the Zelenskyy hate train. She boasts about being sanctioned by the Ukrainian president, presenting herself as a victim of his regime. She’s also claimed that Zelenskyy is a “drug addict” who’s also an “incompetent & corrupt war profiteer”.

14/22

She even conducted a poll in which she asked the cause of death for propagandist Gonzalo Lira (whom she referred to as “journalist”). But due to the poll not getting the result she wanted, she quickly deleted it.

15/22

The probable reason why the Kremlin considers Panchenko a powerful propagandist is her Ukrainian nationality. She’s constantly claiming to be “defending the Ukrainian people” who, according to her, have fallen under a hostile Kyiv leadership and its Western allies.

16/22

Like her fellow propagandist Tucker Carlson, Diana often talks about “peace”, but neatly forgets to talk about any of the peace terms. Maybe you could answer a few questions, @Panchenko_X? 1) Putin has stated that Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts…

18/22

… are now part of Russia - should Ukraine give up these territories for peace? 2) If Russia gets their way, what consequences will the Ukrainian people who remain face? As a reference, you can read this thread:



19/22

Panchenko is also authoring a book that will also hit the US market. This may just be the reason why she decided to jump over to X/Twitter and start posting in English, of course remembering to tag big accounts like Tucker Carlson and Tim Dillon in her posts.

20/22

In 2023, the SBU launched an investigation into Panchenko due to her trip to Russian-occupied Donetsk, calling her officially a “pro-Kremlin propagandist”. She was also sanctioned by presidential decree.

21/22

To conclude:

Russia uses online propagandists with only one goal in mind: to undermine any support from the West to Ukraine. Panchenko is part of that well-oiled machinery, and her being Ukrainian probably provides her some extra credibility in the eyes of her audience.

22/22

I would also suggest you read my previous #vatniksoup on Viktor Medvedchuk:



This soup was prepared in collaboration with sous-chef @SLAVAUA2022NAFO.

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