Pylyp Orlyk Foundation: Statement on Funding for Ukraine’s Public Broadcaster in 2027

January 19, 2027 marks 10 years since the founding of the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine (Suspilne) — the sole provider of public media in Ukraine. Over these 10 years, an inefficient and morally outdated state broadcaster has undergone a deep transformation into a modern multimedia corporation that delivers content 24/7 from every corner of Ukraine and for every corner of Ukraine. It delivers content both through traditional linear media, providing news where the internet disappears and guided aerial bombs (KABs) explode, and by communicating with audiences on major social platforms. Suspilne’s stories can be seen on Threads, YouTube, and YouTube Shorts, while Brobax content fills the highly demanded niche of children’s programming. Films such as “9:20 Ye Konstytutsiya” (“9:20 There Is a Constitution”), “Pryrodnyi Kordon” (“Natural Border”), “Kolaps: yak ukraintsi zruinuvaly imperiyu zla” (“Collapse: How Ukrainians Destroyed the Evil Empire”), and others document important events in Ukraine’s recent history and its fight for independence. Suspilne Mediateka videos regularly go viral on social media.

Jul 17, 2026 | Секретар Фундації | News

A Unique Experience of Transformation During the War

Suspilne’s transformation has taken place alongside a deep transformation of the state itself. Central and Eastern Europe, where public broadcasters were built on the basis of former state broadcasters, has no precedent for creating and developing a public broadcaster during a full-scale war. The same is true for Ukraine, which did not begin with Balcerowicz-style reforms but with a deep and artificially imposed dependence on russia. Ukraine’s case is truly unique. Over this decade, Suspilne has successfully held elections for three compositions of its supervisory board and management, which builds institutional stability and independence for an institution vital to Ukrainian democracy. Internal reforms and resource optimization have been carried out, and large-scale digitization of archives has begun. At the same time, since NSTU’s founding, ensuring the institutional independence of the public broadcaster has remained a chronically unresolved problem. Recommendations from the Council of Europe dating back to 1994, the European Media Freedom Act, and, ultimately, reports from the European Commission all consistently insist that Suspilne’s financial independence is part of the institution’s independence as a whole. Yet over 10 years the state has failed to meet even its minimum obligations, and a significant share of the transformation has been funded by international partners.

Information Warfare as Part of Combat Operations

The war has posed a challenge not only for the entire cultural sector but also for the relevant ministry, since priority spending goes toward Ukraine’s defense. Within this constrained budget, there is an intense dilemma over how every hryvnia is spent. At the same time, the war is not only a fight for the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Crimea regions. The war in the information space — cognitive warfare — is just as much a part of the war, no less terrifying or deadly than drones and KABs. Lacking major battlefield successes, the aggressor systematically and deliberately uses old and reliable methods of influence to undermine external support for Ukraine and to split society’s unity from within, sparing no method or means. Everyone becomes a victim regardless of age or sex, but the most vulnerable are children and teenagers — those who will have to rebuild this country after the war. By normalizing NKVD executioners in “Masha and the Bear” or luring young people in with viral tracks like “sigmaboy,” russia is doing everything it can to keep our youth within its own cultural code, weakening future resistance.

National Content — A Priority After Defense

Producing national, Ukrainian-language content should be a priority second only to producing weapons. Ukraine itself, above all, is interested in this. The world is interested in Ukraine’s security and well-being — but only Ukraine itself truly is. Ukraine must also be interested in passing the benchmark clusters of its European integration, and ensuring Suspilne’s financial and institutional independence is one such benchmark.

A Call to Fund NSTU in 2027

The law stipulates that NSTU should receive 0.2% of total budget expenditures from the previous year. However, we understand that the country’s defense is the key line item in the budget. Therefore, we call for NSTU to be funded in 2027 at a level corresponding to 0.2% under the Law, excluding security and defense sector expenditures (according to Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine data) — that is, 3.8 billion hryvnias. This amount would allow not only for continued existence but also for greater investment in the production of national content, both by Suspilne itself and by independent producers meeting Suspilne’s standards.

We are sincerely convinced that adequate funding for Suspilne, the media, and the cultural sphere is a long-term investment that will, among other things, help overcome the consequences of the war in the future.