By Olha Snopok, Civil Network OPORA

On August 19, 2024, Volodymyr Zelenskyi suggested establishing the Ministry of Unity. According to the President’s plan, this institution should “bring back 7.5 million Ukrainians” who left abroad due to Russia’s full-scale invasion and still stay there. If the ministry comes to life its team will face a difficult task: in addition to creating the necessary security conditions, they need to take care of housing, jobs, education and medical services for the returnees. If fighting continues, the process could drag on for years. 

At the same time, it is important not to forget that Ukrainians who temporarily went abroad remain an integral part of their nation, so they have the same rights and obligations as those who stayed behind in Ukraine. They can take an active part in the political life of the country, such as electing the authorities, influencing decisions, and shaping the future of Ukraine. Therefore, it is worth thinking today about how to ensure their political rights.

Organizing the first post-war elections abroad is a complex task with many challenges. It is necessary to decide where and how millions of voters are going to vote, and provide them with proper logistic arrangements. However, there is another, less obvious problem in how to create conditions for election campaigning among Ukrainians scattered across dozens of countries. In Ukraine, election campaigns have always been large-scale, but it is difficult to imagine billboards with Ukrainian campaigning somewhere along the roads in France or meetings of Ukrainian politicians with voters in small towns in Poland, Germany or Lithuania. Most likely, in this situation, politicians and parties will choose campaigning through messengers and social networks. 

According to OPORA, these platforms are the main sources of news for Ukrainians abroad, so online advertising seems the most logical way out of this situation. At first glance, the internet has no borders and offers political parties and candidates a convenient, easy, and cheap way to reach their voters.

However, it is not all as easy as it sounds In practice, the launch of Ukrainian online campaigning abroad will cause many difficulties. Each social network puts forward its own rules and requirements for political advertising, and different countries create additional legal barriers that further complicate this process. That is why OPORA figured out what “equal” political forces will need to go through in order to still be able to communicate with Ukrainians abroad.

Level One: Ukrainian Legislation

The first and probably the simplest “level” that you will have to deal with once you decide to stand for election is to initiate changes to Ukrainian legislation. Currently, the rules of campaigning are regulated by the Electoral Code, adopted back in 2019. At that time, it was already clear that the main election battles would take place online but legislators did not introduce any specific rules on online campaigning. Moreover, even a special draft law, which was supposed to amend the Electoral Code and partially regulate this area, was last updated in March 2023. After that, it got lost somewhere on the sidelines, never reaching the session hall of the Verkhovna Rada.

It would seem that if the Electoral Code does not say anything about online campaigning, the future candidates will benefit from it because everything that is not prohibited is allowed. However, firstly, the legislation restricts the work of Ukrainian embassies and other diplomatic institutions. On their websites or social networks, they should only inform about the time, place and procedure for voting — but they do not have the right to campaign for any candidate or party, or promote such campaigning. State-based institutions shall observe neutrality, even if they really want to express their support for a candidate. In other words, it is unlikely to get any support from them. 

Secondly, the Electoral Code prohibits foreigners from participating in campaigning, even if they perform the functions of journalists or participate in concerts, performances or other public events. Similarly, politicians and political parties are not allowed to campaign in foreign media operating in Ukraine. But you can apply for services to foreign legal entities — at least this is not expressly prohibited by law. 

The third limitation is financial. All campaign funds must be kept in hryvnia accounts, so there will be difficulties when paying for any services abroad. It will not be possible to bypass this rule: after the elections, all candidates and parties must submit financial reports on their expenses, including on campaigning. 

Level two: international law

Whereas the first level is passed and the Ukrainian law no longer creates any obstacles for campaigning out of the country, you can move on to the second level of difficulty — you need to adapt the Ukrainian context to international law. Other states are much clearer than Ukraine in setting the limits of what is allowed in the field of online campaigning. Below, we will consider the legislation of the European Union and the United Kingdom because this is where the largest number of Ukrainian IDPs live.

In the autumn of 2025, a new regulation on transparency and targeting of political advertising will come into force in the EU, which should standardize the different rules of political advertising established in the EU states and make them more transparent. For potential Ukrainian advertisers, this is also good because now you will not need to deal with the individual rules of each country. However, the good news ends here. 

The new EU requirements oblige political advertising providers, within three months before elections or referendums organised at EU level or at different levels in the Member States, to provide political advertising services only to EU citizens, third-country nationals permanently residing in the EU and having the right to vote, or legal entities established in the EU and not controlled by foreign entities. Simply put, three months before an election or referendum in any country, only local companies or people permanently residing in the EU will be able to broadcast political advertising. This is done in order to reduce the risks of foreign (including Russian) interference in the elections. At the same time, such a rule will actually make it impossible for Ukrainian advertisers to broadcast any political messages in the EU. Since the regulation covers all 27 EU member states, where elections and referendums take place at different times, restrictions on the broadcast of political advertising will operate almost permanently.

Even if these restrictions can still be overcome, there will be another challenge to face: the new legislation prohibits the use of targeting based on sensitive data for political advertising. These include, among others, information about the racial and ethnic origin of a person, their political views, etc. In other words, Ukrainian politicians and parties are unlikely to be able to target their messages exclusively to Ukrainian citizens, since such data is likely to fall under the category of sensitive. If the advertisement is shown to a wide audience, it will immediately increase its cost. Thus, the new European legislation actually makes it impossible to broadcast political advertising to EU countries from outside the Union. 

In the UK, the law is slightly more permissive. People and organizations who do not have any legal ties to the country and do not stay in can share political ads, but within the limit of £700. They must disclose all details about the sponsors of a particular political ad, as well as all advertiser data. If people want to spend between £700 and £10,000 on campaigning, they must be registered in the United Kingdom’s voter register or reside in that country. Organizations are subject to similar requirements — UK registration, acting as a business operator here, or fulfilling some other conditions. Spending more than £700 on advertising without complying with these rules will qualify as an offence. As you can see, the British requirements, although they look somewhat simpler than in the EU, do not resolve the problem of the availability of online campaigning globally.

Level three: social media policies

If you somehow managed to agree on the opportunity to share your campaign in the EU countries and the UK – congratulations! You are moving to the third level! Here you will find negotiations with the heavyweights of the online space — social networks, which (spoiler) also restrict campaigning from abroad.

Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and a number of other services), whose rules often become a model for other platforms, has made its regulation of political advertising much stricter in recent years. For example, advertisers are now required to add to each political post the information about the organization or person who paid for this ad, and to comply with local laws regarding political advertising. To run social, election-related, or political ads on any Meta platform, advertisers must go through mandatory authorization — verifying their identity through a document issued in the country where the advertiser plans to place the ads. In some countries, it is necessary to additionally provide the postal address in this country. This rule effectively means that only persons residing or physically staying in the country where they want to run ads can run political ads.  This creates additional obstacles for Ukrainian candidates and parties. Although there is no direct ban on spending from the election fund out of the country, ordering advertising through citizens of another state can be regarded as campaigning with the involvement of foreigners — and it is illegal. The use of foreign legal entities for this purpose, although permitted, is also complicated by the requirement to pay for advertising in UAH. All this makes the process of launching political campaigning in other countries quite complicated and expensive.

Google has similar policies. It requires advertisers to comply with the laws of the country where they run ads, and in case of violations, the company reserves the right to contact law enforcement. In countries where online campaigning is regulated by law, Google insists that each advertiser pre-verify their data through special Election Ads verification or Advertiser Identity verification tools. Now, those who want to launch political advertising in the EU countries, the UK, the USA and a number of other countries should go through this procedure. Also, political ads on Google services can be targeted only by geographical location, age, gender, and context — all other types of targeting are prohibited. In order to broadcast election advertising in the EU, advertisers inside and outside the Union must undergo verification and receive special confirmation. To do this, you should provide Google with detailed information about yourself: confirm the citizenship of an EU member state, provide your address and contact details, prove your right to broadcast advertising in the EU, etc. For organizations, the list of required documents is even longer.

In September 2023, Company X (Twitter) again allowed political advertising on its platform — for the first time since 2019. However, unlike Google and Meta, X does not allow it to be broadcast in EU countries. Instead, you can campaign in the UK, the USA and some other regions. To run ads, you must be certified (provide an official ID or local corporate address) and get prior approval from X. Political advertising in a particular country can only be run by citizens of this country or organizations registered in its territory.

In Viber, political advertising is allowed, but limited by the company’s policy. In particular, such advertising must obtain Viber’s prior written approval and the advertiser must comply with international and local laws, rules and regulations. In addition, Viber prohibits advertising content that contains “controversial political or social issues”, as well as collecting users’ personal information, including their political views and ethnicity.

On the contrary, Telegram and TikTok prohibit political advertising on their platforms. In Telegram, you cannot campaign for politicians, parties, or political movements or advertise any political issues. TikTok prohibits political ads for all users. In addition, the policy of the social network emphasizes that it is impossible to advertise the topic of elections and referendums, in particular, to urge people to vote. However, neither platform prohibits any alternative ways of campaigning, such as creating dedicated channels, paid ads in posts, or videos on popular channels (including anonymous ones).

Bonus Level: Cash

When you finally have lobbied for changes to the Electoral Code, dealt with the limitations of European legislation, and negotiated with social networks, the most interesting thing begins. Now you need to find the money to reach out to your voters in dozens of different countries. 

In 2021, OPORA already told about pricing for political ads on Facebook and Instagram, and which countries had the highest cost. This year, we checked again the cost of one advertising post on Meta platforms (we would check on others, but Google, X and Viber do not offer such luxury to Ukrainians). The most expensive political advertising will cost in the United States, Canada and Sweden: here, for one advertising post you will have to pay about $150 (more than UAH 6,000). In the UK, the price tag is even higher — $191 (almost UAH 8,000). And now, we can compare these indicators with the cost of advertising in Ukraine, where the launch of one advertising post costs about $31 (approximately UAH 1,200).

Of course, in Europe, where the largest number of Ukrainian refugees are now staying, the situation is not so dramatic: the average cost of one advertising post is $48 — slightly higher than in Ukraine. However, this figure does not quite reflect the true picture because prices vary greatly from country to country. For example, in small states like Monaco or Andorra, a single political post will cost less than $1. But in large countries, such as the UK, Denmark, Germany, or France, the price for one advertising post will exceed $100.

Finally, if you run only one advertising post in all European countries, then such an advertising campaign will cost about 2,288 US dollars (about UAH⁠94,000). So, if you do not have a powerful political party with thousands of members who will conscientiously donate dollars to support the party, a friendly oligarch, or a jar filled to the brim with coins buried in your grandma’s garden, you can’t delay and need to start fundraising for your election campaign in Europe right now.

Conclusions

After this text, some readers might even envy Ukrainians staying abroad. It seems that their social media feeds will finally be free from endless political ads and election slogans. However, it is an illusion. In fact, the ads will stay but they will change the format. Instead of the usual ads on Instagram or YouTube, it will appear as thousands of posts on anonymous Telegram channels or videos on TikTok. Promoted political posts on these platforms will become the least transparent and unaccountable campaigning tool. Its volumes and costs will be hardly possible to track, which will allow candidates and parties to spend millions of hryvnias of vague origin without having to report them. In addition, due to the actual absence of content moderation on Telegram, one can expect Russia’s intervention: channels will be created to discredit politicians inconvenient for the Russian Federation, clone accounts and various ways to promote Kremlin-backed candidates will boost.

The next elections in Ukraine will be historic as they will determine the country’s future for many years to come. They will be closely monitored by the entire world, so the government will have to do their utmost to ensure that the election process meets international standards, in particular in the field of transparency of election campaigning. Cooperation with European regulators can be a productive solution, which will allow Ukrainian parties and candidates to join the European online space and provide access to “clean” campaigning. This approach will enable public authorities and NGOs to control campaigning out of the country and track the costs. All this can be an important step towards ensuring transparency, accountability, and, ultimately, the legitimacy of the future electoral process in Ukraine and abroad.