Roman Kravets’s bodyguard “from the SBU” turned out to be not involved in the special service and Malyuk
27 June 2024 09:14
ЕКСКЛЮЗИВ
The SBU has denied providing security to Roman Kravets, who, according to hromadske journalists, is the co-author and alleged owner of the anonymous Telegram channel Joker. In their investigation, the journalists said that Kravets has a personal bodyguard, which, according to hromadske’s sources, was provided by the SBU.
In turn, the Security Service of Ukraine, in response to a request from Komersant ukrainskyi 
, said that no security was provided to Roman Kravets.
“The Security Service of Ukraine has not provided and does not provide personal protection to citizen Roman Kravets. The assumptions made in the hromadske journalistic material about the alleged involvement of the SBU in the protection of this person are completely untrue,”
– the agency said.
They stressed that the phrase: “A source close to Roman Kravets, in a conversation with hromadske, claims that he explained the presence of security as a “gift from Malyuk”, which was used by journalists in their investigation, discredits the Security Service of Ukraine.
“We demand that the editorial office, which always emphasises its respect for journalistic standards, separately refute this phrase as unreliable and unconfirmed in an official manner,”
– the SBU said.
The agency also said that the person identified in the story as a security guard and who allegedly introduced himself as SBU officer Andriy, according to the data already established by the SBU, has no relation to the Security Service of Ukraine.
“The authors of the material, as they themselves note, had been preparing it for several months, and the conversation with the security guard, who ‘introduced himself as SBU officer Andriy’, took place on 8 May 2024. With almost a month and a half before the story was published, hromadske only asked the SBU for official comments at 13:10 on 24 June, less than two hours before the story was published on 24 June at 15:00,”
– the SBU said.
As a reminder, in their investigation, the journalists stated that they had spoken to about 20 former and current officials and security officers, who named the administrator of the public. At the same time, Kravets himself denied this information in his interview with hromadske journalists and said that he had sold the Joker Telegram channel to another person, whose name he did not disclose.
Who is Roman Kravets?
According to journalists, in 2015, Roman Kravets assisted in the information campaigns of Hennadiy Korban, who was trying to be elected as a deputy in Chernihiv in the parliamentary by-election. Later, through him, he met the former head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Bohdan.
After Kravets failed to get into the Verkhovna Rada in 2019, Hennadiy Korban and Svitlana Kryukova, deputy editor of Strana.ua, founded the Joker Telegram channel, which Roman Kravets became the administrator of. After 2 years, Kravets allegedly ousted Korban and Kryukova from managing the Joker and became the sole owner and author of the channel.
Currently, the Joker Telegram channel has more than 250,000 subscribers: in addition to news, some posts contain criticism of Ukrainian business, including Uklon, a number of government officials and the TCC. At the same time, Dzhoker supports the head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak, and his deputy, Oleh Tatarov.
According to hromadske’s interlocutors, Roman Kravets actively communicates with the Presidential Office, politicians and representatives of special services, taking screenshots of all correspondence and boasting about them as proof of his authority.
