Russian propagandists ramp up fake news about salt shortage in Ukraine

Russian Telegram channels have spread a post in which they claim that the sale of salt in Ukrainian supermarkets is limited, and this is due to the fact that Soledar, where the state-owned enterprise Artemsil is located, is no longer under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In confirmation of their claims, Russian propaganda shows an announcement from an ATB supermarket, which says that due to supply interruptions, one person can buy no more than one pack of salt.

However, Artemsil suspended its operation in May 2022 year due to constant enemy shelling. This is what caused the deficit of salt at the time, which was solved through imports.

Serhii Demchenko, head of the communications department at ATB Corporation, said in a comment to Ukrinform that there are currently no restrictions on the sale of salt in the stores of the ATB retail network.

"The above announcement concerned last year's restrictions, when the Artemsil enterprise was damaged by rockets in the spring. As is known, the situation was resolved in the shortest possible time due to the import of salt from European countries," he said.

In addition, there is no shortage of salt in the ATB online store either.

This is not the first time that Russian propagandists have spread fake news about salt since the full-scale invasion began. The Center for Countering Disinformation, at Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, has already published a selection of false stories about the Artemsil enterprise and stocks of salt in Ukraine.

Dmytro Badrak