Ukrinform promptly and comprehensively covered the international activity of state leaders and government officials, as well as important events in support of Ukraine across the globe.
In February, readers and viewers of Ukrinform were most interested in topics related to the reboot of the leadership of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, international conferences on the provision of military aid to Ukraine, as well as the results of Russia's two-year full-scale war on Ukraine.
The agency actively informed the audience about efforts to provide financial and military support to Ukraine. An important event of February 2024 was the 19th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in the Ramstein format. Journalists promptly covered the event. A number of news stories and analytical materials on the results of the meeting were published.
Ukrinform actively covered the 60th Munich Security Conference. Journalists of the agency were on the sidelines of the event. The content included news stories, commentaries, livestreams, analytical materials, exclusive stories and reports. Ukrinform TV posted 23 videos about the Munich Security Conference. Seventeen of them are of own production. Three special reports were also published. These video materials received more than 55,000 views, with the reach figure being almost 1.5 million.
TOP 3 Ukrinform videos about the Munich Security Conference in terms of views:
Ukrinform also reported in detail about the Paris meeting of the allies, which was also attended by the President of Ukraine, notably about the results of the conference in support of Ukraine, what was discussed there and when Ukraine will receive the support it needs.
Photo: Offfce of the President of Ukraine
The topic of rebooting the Ukrainian Armed Forces was very relevant in February. The dismissal of Zaluzhnyi from the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the appointment of Syrskyi to this post was one of the popular topics that interested Ukrinform readers. Journalists quickly gathered a number of expert comments and news stories to cover these topics as widely as possible. Ukrinform talked about the new team and asked experts how they assessed the changes in the leadership of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Ukrinform continued to cover the topic of Ukraine's reconstruction. In February, a number of materials were published about the restoration of cities destroyed by Russia. Among them, in particular, were reports on how Irpin, Bashtanka and other settlements are being rebuilt.
Russia continues to try to sow division in Ukrainian society and the international community, throwing fakes into the information space. That's why Ukrinform continues to communicate topics that help society protect itself from hostile propaganda, and develop sophisticated information and analytical products to combat Russian disinformation and propaganda.
During February, Ukrinform's main editorial office - the Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security - promptly informed Ukrainian and foreign audiences about the events of the Russian-Ukrainian war, systematically countering Russian disinformation and cooperating with relevant agencies, diplomatic missions and partners on the formation of a "one voice" policy. An analysis of the international, Ukrainian and Russian media spaces was conducted to identify information threats. In particular, in February, a number of Russian statements were analyzed about the "West's fatigue with Ukraine," "an offensive on Odesa," "a strike on the training ground in Selydove," "negotiations, the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the United States," etc. Among Russian psychological operations, there were also narratives about mobilization in Ukraine and those aimed at inciting enmity between Hungarians and Ukrainians. The information product "Main positions of information response. Explaining complex things in simple words" provides a daily round-up of the main events related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is sent to the Ukrainian ministries, the Verkhovna Rada, the Cabinet of Ministers, foreign diplomatic institutions, special services, departments and the United News information telethon.
In February 2024, the Ukrainian-language version of the Ukrinform website published 7,460 news items, 181 publications, 31 interviews and 79 materials in the "Research" section.
According to a YouScan analysis, the total number of links for February 2024 is 63,223 (January - 63,542).
In February, Ukrinform correspondents produced a significant amount of exclusive content - interviews, comments and video products.
The most popular interviews included:
Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine: War has changed – whoever masters new technologies will win. About the transformation of the NSDC activities over the past two years, the renewal of the military leadership of the state, key changes in the war, the reasons for a slowdown in the provision of security and financial assistance from partners, the need to wait for the results of the investigation in cases regarding pressure on journalists, the development of the domestic defense industry, the existence of a program for the production of Ukrainian air defense systems.
Ivan Fedorov, head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration: Zaporizhzhia will have underground by September 1. About the military, defense, betrayal and traitors, destruction and recovery, economy, a "humanitarian scandal," about those who lost everything and have to start from scratch.
Oleksii Makeiev, Ambassador of Ukraine to Germany: Germany has gone from 5,000 helmets to EUR 7.6 billion of military aid per year. About whether Berlin is pushing Ukraine to negotiate with Russia, when security guarantees for Ukraine will be signed with Germany, and why the supply of Taurus missiles has been suspended.
Dan Cisek, State Department Spokesperson: Ukraine has a place in NATO. In an exclusive interview with Ukrinform Director General Oleksii Matsuka, Cisek spoke about when Ukraine will be able to join NATO, whether the U.S. supports the Kyiv-proposed Peace Formula, the role of China in the Russian-Ukrainian war, and whether the U.S. has plan B if budget support for Ukraine is not approved.
The total traffic of the Ukrainian and foreign-language versions of the Ukrinform website in February: users - more than 5.35 million, views - about 14.7 million, website engagements - more than 38 million.
Some 7,789 news items were published on a single newswire. Correspondents of the editorial office of timely information issued 2,315 news items, the economic editorial office — 486 news items, and a regional correspondent network — 1,555 news items. The foreign editorial office issued 1,240 news stories, 13 interviews, 21 analytical publications, 75 video materials, and 836 photographs.
Ukrinform photographers made 640 photo reports. In total, 6,552 photos were published.
Total reach figures for February on Ukrinform's social media platforms - Facebook, X, Telegram, Instagram and Threads - more than 37.4 million. This is 1.3 million a day. The number of subscribers to the YouTube channel Ukrinform TV as of March 1, 2024 was 859,000 (a monthly increase of about 14,500). Video views on the YouTube channel for February - 12.3 million. This is about 420,000 per day.
As part of the "Government Inside" project, an exclusive interview with Ukrainian Justice Minister Denys Maliuska was published. Journalist and Director General of Ukrinform Oleksii Matsuka asked the minister about how Ukrainian lawyers will get victories in international courts in cases of compensation for the consequences of Kremlin crimes, whether Ukraine is ready to mobilize prisoners and those serving suspended sentences, how much Ukraine spends on keeping Russian prisoners and what it gets instead. The text version was published on the Ukrinform website.
The guests of the "Leshchenko Asks" program in February were, in particular, Ukrainian Armed Forces serviceman Oleksandr Batalov and former Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Maliar.
The "Kramatorsk Station" project was attended by Ukrainian Ground Forces spokesperson Illia Yevlash, 21-year-old soldier Oksana Rubaniak (call sign "Ksena") and others.
The national news agency continues to be a reliable and credible source of news and information in our country and around the world. In February, Ukrinform updated its editorial standards - so that the content, taking into account the challenges of a full-scale war, could be of higher quality, complete, timely, impartial, comprehensive and balanced.
Ukrinform's editorial standards will be based on the "Code of Ethics of a Ukrainian Journalist," which defines, in particular, freedom of speech and expression as an integral part of a journalist's activity, respect for a person's private life, service to society, rather than the interests of the authorities and founders, etc. The agency is also creating a standards compliance body, which includes representatives of Ukrinform's editorial offices.
