Ukraine’s state database of registered businesses shows that Interradio company behind 4Kanal TV news channel changed hands Monday and is now fully owned by Ivan and Nataliya Kovalov, parents of ‘Servant of the People’ MP Ivan Kovalov.

The news was confirmed by former 4 kanal owner Dmytro Dobrodomov who wrote on Facebook the same day the TV station that ‘has over 200 employees, two cutting-edge TV studio, and broadcasts to whole Ukraine’  needed ‘significant investments’ to make gains in viewership ratings and its new owner is ‘ready’ to be tasked with such challenge.

In an interview for Detektor media, Ivan Kovalov said his family plans to turn 4 kanal that mainly covers news and offers analysis and opinion programming into ‘one of the leaders among news broadcasting channels’, adding he wants to avoid the situation where ‘TV networks carry out the wishes of their owners’, and by doing so, cause ‘damage to the state and Ukrainian people’.

The new owner said he would keep ‘pro-Ukrainian vector of the TV channel’ and not interfere with the editorial policies.