Cybersecurity expert Konstantin Korsun talks about cases of public exposure of the lies of the Minister of Energy and his subordinates, as well as similar situations with concealment of the truth regarding the hacking of the Diya in 2022. Korsun analyzes these events, comparing them and drawing conclusions about the systemic problem of denial of facts by the authorities.
I was struck by the story of the Minister of Energy and his subordinate officials being publicly caught lying. I was struck by the analogies and the conclusions drawn from them.
For those who are not in the know, I will briefly recall the essence of the scandal.
A couple of weeks ago, we were all suffering from long blackouts and suspected that something was definitely up – but we, the stinkers, weren't supposed to know about it.
Expert Kharchenko reported that there was an accident at the South Ukrainian NPP, transformers burned down. The accident was not critical, and in fact everything was restored within 24 hours.
But the minister, together with his subordinate Energoatom, denied the fact of the accident, calling Kharchenko's revelations from the rostrum of the Verkhovna Rada a "Russian IPSO."
Then MP Zheleznyak published Ukrenergo's response, which was written in Ukrainian in white: "yes, there was an accident, yes, the transformers failed, yes, the power unit was turned off.".
But officials continued to deny the already confirmed fact and continued to call the truth “Russian IPSO.” They also appealed to the National Security and Defense Council and the Security Service of Ukraine to “take measures against those who spread rumors…”.
Well, then the international organization IAEA officially confirmed the fact of the accident – because that's their job.
Do you think the minister admitted to lying, explained the reasons, repented? Not at all.
Do you think he faces resignation or at least punishment for knowingly providing false information to the SBU? But hey.
The story of the Diya hack in 2022 developed in an almost similar scenario.
The hack took place in January 2022. The Minister of Diya and his subordinates denied this fact, despite evidence from the darknet leak of part of the stolen database.
Expert Korsun reported on this evidence, he was called a “Kremlin agent” and added to the “peacekeeper” list – however, for criticizing another state application (it has already been removed today).
But in July 2023, People's Deputy from the ruling party Fedienko (who is also an ardent supporter of Digital Minister Fedorov) writes an official request to Defense Minister Reznikov, where he writes in Ukrainian in white, "On the night of January 13-14, 2022, the Diya were hacked..."
Expert Korsun again points to this fact as another proof of the Diya hack. And again he receives a portion of accusations of “distribution of Russian IPSO”.
And in July 2024, the fact of the Diya hack is confirmed by the Maryland court, the Attorney General’s Office and the US FBI, this case is covered by the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, as well as the Voice of America, and the Russian suspect is put on the wanted list and a reward of $10 million is announced for his detention
What are the digital minister and his subordinates doing? Of course, they deny the obvious facts.
They are ridiculously trying to lie, as if “the data leak of 13.5 million citizens cannot be true because at that time there were only 1.5 million in Diya.”
Although in the news during that period, Fedorov himself personally boasted that “Diya already has more than 13 million users.” The manipulation is so close that it can be refuted in a few seconds of Googling.
Do you think they confessed, explained, repented? Is anyone facing resignation?
So, the primitive denial of facts that are not beneficial to the authorities is not a one-off incident, it is their strategy, this is how they understand the "end of the era of lies." I don't know if they are taught this or if it is an instinctive reaction of a single-celled organism to irritation.
But the key problem of the lack of trust is that when you are caught in a small lie, you automatically become convinced that you are also lying about big issues.
And getting through the next winter is a very big issue for Ukrainians, especially for those who are locked up within Ukraine and do not have the opportunity to go "winter" somewhere in Bali or Thailand.
This is how it turns out that the systemic lies of officials turn into a question of the survival of the nation.
And lies are always used to cover up corruption, sabotage, incompetence, and embezzlement. Phenomena, the development of which in Ukraine completely coincides with the goals of the Kremlin.
