@redstarfish they aren't feeding it to ML, they're feeding it to the FSB (and most likely secret chats too).
We have cases when people tried to leave occupied territories, and got into trouble because russians had a list of phone numbers which he synced into Telegram a while ago, but deleted from the phone.
https://svidomi.in.ua/en/page/telegram-why-does-ukraine-use-this-messenger-from-russia