As it is now, the United News marathon is not worth the money allocated for it, Mykyta Poturaiev, chair of the VRU Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy and a "Servant of the People" deputy, said in an interview with RBC-Ukraine.

"I think it is no longer worth it. […] I believe, no matter what they say about the telethon, that political neutrality is skewed there, that there is an imbalance in representing political forces, there are objective facts that force us to admit this. I don't welcome this, I believe that all pro-Ukraine politicians should be represented there," he said, adding that the telethon now consists of private producers while only one channel, Rada, is state-owned.

"And no one could ever tell private producers that they must strictly adhere to political neutrality, because these are private media. Again, I believe that such imbalance is ugly, it causes reprimands from Western partners," Poturaiev said.

The deputy also mentioned Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine (Suspilne), which "also has a sizable budget", and added that despite the Suspilne being source of verified information, it also sometimes "makes mistakes and deviates from total political neutrality."

"But this happens everywhere, and on the BBC too. Because everyone who works in the media is a living person, with their own tastes, preferences, vision of the situation, and certain personal optics are still present. And that's normal," he said.

At the same time, Mykyta Poturaiev believes that the telethon provides high-quality information, "meaning that it does not broadcast fakes."

"When they say that the telethon is wearing rose-tinted glasses and does not report on the problems... First of all, I disagree with this, because there is coverage of problems on the telethon. And do other media only talk about problems? Not at all. They talk about different things. I believe that there are reasonable questions to be asked about the telethon, yes, I believe that the telethon is going through a crisis, as suggested by the indicators that have been dropping throughout 2024, definitely. Can something be done about it? Obviously, we can and need to look for some solutions. And when it is time to talk funding, the same question should be asked: what are the plans – what will the country be getting for this money?" Poturaiev said.