Project “Vyshka”: new platform — old faces

At first glance, it seems that the “Vyshka” project on YouTube is a new program. Yes, the first video was supposedly published at the beginning of January 2024, and the channel already has over 1 million subscribers. In reality, the YouTube channel “Vyshka” was created back in 2018, but you won’t find any old videos.

The YouTube channel “Vyshka” is a renamed channel “NASH”. On Wikipedia, you can find the original link to the outlet’s YouTube channel. Using the Wayback Machine archive, we found that in January 2022, the channel was named “NASH”, but later it was renamed to “Da, eto tak (Yes, it is so)”, and now the channel is called “Vyshka”. So, the same channel was renamed twice.

There are also signs that “Vyshka” and “NASH” are the same YouTube channel:

• A stable increase in the number of subscribers to “Vyshka” in 2021 after the closure of “Medvedchuk’s channels”. The same thing happened with the “NASH” channel.
• An influx of around a hundred thousand subscribers in the winter of 2022. At that time, the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) imposed sanctions against the TV channel, blocking it for five years. Therefore, YouTube became the only broadcasting channel.
• The “NASH” channel reported 1 million subscribers in September 2021. “Vyshka” had the same number at that time.

The TV channel “NASH” was under the control of the pro-Russian politician Yevhenii Muraiev, although formally, it belonged to his father and some other co-owners. Russian and pro-Russian narratives were repeatedly spread on the channel. Earlier, we debunked false claims made by Muraiev.

The hosts of the project also have a pro-Russian background. Currently, there are two of them on the YouTube channel: Lana Shevchuk and Vasyl Apasov.

In 2019, it became known about Apasov’s author project on the ZIK TV channel. This happened after the channel was acquired by Taras Kozak, an associate of Viktor Medvedchuk. In 2020, Apasov was excluded from the Public Oversight Council of the NABU due to artificially inflated votes. In addition to working on “Vyshka,” he has his own YouTube channel where he invites figures from the Registry of Traitors of the “Chesno” Movement: Olesia Medvedeva, Mykhailo Chaplyha, Nazar Diorditsa (Max Nazarov).

Lana Shevchuk became a host of live broadcasts on NewsOne in 2018, which also belonged to Taras Kozak, and later joined the channel “NASH.” In particular, during her work at NewsOne in 2021, while discussing negotiations on the return of Ukrainian prisoners, she only quoted the position of the “LPR/DPR” militants, who were not even part of the negotiations. This was done in the context of presenting Medvedchuk as the only person capable of negotiating. It was then that a statement was made by the militants that they “no longer consider Zelenskyi’s team worthy participants in negotiations to resolve the conflict in Donbas.” Ukraine’s position was not mentioned at all.

Guests for the “Vyshka” project have also been selected accordingly. Here are just a few of them.

Dmytro Spivak

In the past, Dmytro Spivak was a permanent “political expert” on the airwaves of TV channels such as ZIK, NewsOne, and “112”, which mostly titled him as an expert not to highlight the guest’s exceptional competence but to conceal his lack of expertise and other qualifications. And it is really difficult to call Dmytro Spivak a successful politician: although he was a member of the Odesa City Council, he failed to enter the Verkhovna Rada. Spivak attempted this twice — with “Ukraine – Forward!” and on the party list of Bloc of Petro Poroshenko, but he failed to garner the necessary votes. Spivak came closest to the coveted Verkhovna Rada with “Servant of the People”, but at the last moment, he “independently” decided not to run. Among the reasons for refusing to participate, he cited “harassment” that unfolded against him on social media due to pro-Russian messages on television. Since then, the expert has not hidden personal resentment and has taken every opportunity to let viewers know his opinion about President Zelensky and his entourage.

During the full-scale invasion, while living in Odesa, he regularly conducts live broadcasts with Maks Nazarov, the top presenter of the “NASH” channel. Together, “pro-Ukrainian” experts demonstratively spread openly pro-Russian narratives under sensational headlines like “Russian-speaking Ukrainians DO NOT exist: who is ‘smashing’ people?” Periodically speaks about poverty and corruption in Ukraine, consistently blaming the current Ukrainian government, which allegedly prohibits celebrating Spivak’s beloved May 9th:

Ruslan Bortnyk

Another frequent guest on the “Vyshka” channel, who dislikes Ukraine’s language policy, is Ruslan Bortnyk, a former assistant to the deputy from ‘Party of Regions’ Vadym Kolesnichenko, the scandalous author of the “language law” that came into force in August 2012 and was declared unconstitutional after Yanukovych’s escape. According to this law, for a language to be granted regional status, it was sufficient for its speakers to constitute 10% of the population of the respective region, city, or district. This meant that the Russian language obtained regional status throughout the country and practically equated in status to the state language.

On the eve of the full-scale invasion, Bortnyk was a member of the Board of the NGO “Center for Administrative and Judicial Persecution of Nazi Criminals”. The organization was established in 2013 to discredit Bandera, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, and the Ukrainian liberation movement as a whole. The central Kremlin thesis about “Nazi collaborators” from the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists and Ukrainian Insurgent Army, who allegedly committed pogroms against thousands of innocent Ukrainians and Jews, became the focus. In addition to collecting information about Ukrainian Insurgent Army veterans, the center was involved in publishing “studies” on the topics of “Ukrainian Nazism”, falsification of history, and creating anti-historical myths.

However, this “expert” doesn’t only dream about Nazis; he also sees even more exotic creatures.

“Vyshka” eagerly picks up on the panic tones in the words of invited guests and turns them into sensational headlines — classic examples of clickbait:

Vadym Karasiov

Another “expert” invited to the airwaves is the well-known “political analyst” Vadym Karasiov, who is notable for his pro-Russian statements. After 2014, Vadym Karasiov regularly appeared on the channels “112 Ukraine” and “NewsOne,” where he spread pro-Russian propaganda. He hosted his own programs on NewsOne and “NASH” channels. He has been the Director of the Institute of Global Strategies since 2003. Listed in the database of pseudo-experts by the publication “Texty”, he has been involved in promoting parties such as “Our Ukraine”, “Ukraine – Forward!”, “Strong Ukraine”, “Opposition Bloc”, the Opposition Platform — For Life, and “Revival”. He has also been involved in promoting Nataliia Korolevska, Oleh Liashko, and Yuliia Tymoshenko.

Karasiov participated in the Russian propaganda talk show “60 Minutes” and spoke against the adoption of the law “On ensuring the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language”. In 2020, he denied that there was a war in the East and referred to the military actions as an “unresolved conflict”. And after the full-scale invasion, he spread pro-Russian narratives on his YouTube channel “Vadym Karasiov Speaks and Proves”, including the claim that Zelenskyi does not seek to end the war because he understands that elections will have to be held.

Karasiov’s rhetoric on the “Vyshka” project is almost identical to what he said before. For example, the “expert” talks about how Ukraine needed to sign a peace treaty.

Moreover, Karasiov believes it is bad that Ukraine continues to fight instead of capitulating to Russia. He justifies this by arguing that Ukraine cannot win the war:

As we can see, the topics manipulated by Karasiov in the project are peace negotiations and ending the war. Allegedly, the Ukrainian government does not want to engage in this but instead is occupied with “militarism”.

Dmytro Korniichuk

The next guest of the program, who has distinguished himself with his pro-Russian and anti-Western statements both before February 24, 2022, and after, is Dmytro Korniichuk. He is the director of the Center for Innovative Consulting “KDA”, where he was involved in promoting Yuliia Tymoshenko and her party “Batkivshchyna (Motherland)”. On the ZIK channel, Korniichuk talked about how the US did nothing to prevent the pandemic because it was beneficial for them, referred to reforms as genocide of the Ukrainian people, and spoke of Ukraine being controlled from Washington.

After the Russian full-scale invasion, he continued to spread pro-Russian statements: Putin supposedly approved the war with the West, which is only using Ukrainians, and the Russian-Ukrainian war is just a means to weaken Europe and Ukraine. On February 20, the Security Service of Ukraine and the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office handed over suspicions to the blogger for justifying and denying Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine, as well as glorifying its participants.

Stories about the division of Ukraine, control over Ukraine from Washington, and other similar statements are part of the narratives of Russian propaganda, where Ukraine is depicted as a dependent state that cannot make any decisions on its own.

Instead of conclusions

These are just some of the guests of “Vyshka” and their quotes. The number of videos on the channel increases daily, and similar “experts” are invited daily. Their rhetoric has not changed significantly since the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion. Only certain accents have changed. For example, previously, Ukrainians were supposedly fooled by the West and the Ukrainian government. Now, Russia also receives occasional criticism. However, this seems more like an attempt to reach a larger audience.

Overall, as we can see from the rhetoric of the guests invited to “Vyshka”, its narratives contain almost a standard set of pro-Russian and anti-Western narratives. So-called “experts” talk about Western control over Ukraine, agreements between the US and Russia, and the division of Ukraine. Also, in the broadcasts, you can hear that Ukraine allegedly does not want peace, oppresses Russian speakers, and imposes dictatorship. In other words, they are doing what they did before the full-scale invasion — spreading pro-Russian narratives. And they do it in a veiled form to avoid suspicion of collaborationism.

While the YouTube channel “Vyshka” continues to operate in Ukraine, the public should be informed about the problems associated with such projects, and consumers should ignore such channels and increase their own media literacy.