Zelenskyy responded to the petition against Potap: the Cabinet of Ministers and the SBU will consider the issue of his title

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy forwarded to Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi and Acting Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Oleksandr Poklad a petition concerning the deprivation of Oleksii Potapenko, known as Potap, of the honorary title "Honored Artist of Ukraine." This is stated in the president’s response published on September 28 on the electronic petitions website, reports UNN.

Details

The appeal by Kateryna Taran was published on August 28. It collected 25,895 signatures, out of the 25,000 required for consideration. The author of the petition asks that Potapenko’s public activities be investigated, including his statements regarding the Ukrainian language, the promotion of Russian-language cultural products, and cooperation with representatives of the Russian show business industry. If the grounds provided for by law are confirmed, she proposes initiating the deprivation of the artist’s state award.

In turn, the President of Ukraine asked the heads of the government and the Security Service of Ukraine, within their respective areas of competence, to consider the issue raised in the petition in accordance with the procedure established by law. He also emphasized that the application of sanctions requires sufficient factual information and proper legal justification.

Context

Earlier, Culture Minister Tetiana Berezhna explained that state awards may be revoked following a court conviction in cases specified by law or through the application of a relevant sanction based on a decision of the National Security and Defense Council enacted by a presidential decree.

It should also be recalled that on September 17, the Verkhovna Rada did not support sending the president a lawmakers’ request concerning the deprivation of Potapenko’s title of Honored Artist of Ukraine. A total of 198 members of parliament voted for the decision. The initiators of the request were Solomiia Bobrovska, Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, and other lawmakers—24 members of parliament in total.

Potap received the honorary title "Honored Artist of Ukraine" in June 2020 by decree of Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the occasion of Constitution Day.

Reminder

In September 2026  singer and producer Oleksii Potapenko, known as "Potap," was added to the "Myrotvorets" database. The stated reason was humanitarian aggression and participation in propaganda events.