Ukrinform

Ukrainian state media

Background

Ukrinform traces its origins to March 1918, when Ukraine's Bureau of Ukrainian Press (BUP) began operating in Katerynoslav (now Dnipro) during the Ukrainian War of Independence, with nationalist intellectual Dmytro Dontsov as its first director. It was later reorganized as the Ukrainian Telegraph Agency and went through multiple iterations during the Soviet period before being reconstituted as an independent Ukrainian state agency after the 1991 declaration of independence. Today it operates as the Ukrainian National News Agency under a founding government decree that obliges it to serve as the official distributor of documents from the Verkhovna Rada, the President, and the Cabinet of Ministers. Because more than 80% of its budget comes from the state, it cannot be considered editorially independent; there is no independent oversight body or statutory protection for its newsroom. During the full-scale Russian invasion that began in February 2022, Ukrinform became a high-volume wartime outlet, averaging roughly 53 reports per day on the conflict in the first month alone, framing Russian actions consistently as an 'invasion' and foregrounding civilian casualties. Academic research comparing its framing with that of Russian state agency TASS found that both agencies used atrocity coverage to marshal support, but from diametrically opposed national perspectives. Media monitors classify it as a state media outlet with a right-center editorial tilt reflecting the orientation of the Ukrainian government it serves.

Sources

1. Ukrinform – State Media Monitor
2. Ukrinform – Wikipedia
3. Ukrinform – Media Bias/Fact Check
4. Ukrinform – AllSides Media Bias
5. About the Agency – Ukrinform
6. Media Framing of the Russia-Ukraine War by TASS and Ukrinform – ResearchGate
7. Who Owns the Media in Ukraine? – n-ost

Profile compiled 2026-08-22; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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