Russian propaganda spreading fake news about 'needs' of Ukrainian veterans

Russian media outlets, Telegram channels, and pro-Russian accounts on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, are distributing a photo of a pawn shop, which was allegedly taken in Ternopil. The facade of the pawn shop bears an inscription saying that, among other things, they accept biomechanical prostheses as collateral.

The propagandists claimed that Ukrainian veterans had been left by the state to fend for themselves and were forced to bring even prostheses to pawnshops to feed themselves.

The photo is fake. The pawn shop in the photo is called "Parus," and it is located not in Ternopil, but in Kyiv, at 106/2 Holosiivskyi Avenue.

The original photo was taken two years ago, and it does not have a picture of a biomechanical prosthesis - instead, it shows a screwdriver.

This can be seen in the photos taken not so long ago.

It is not the first time that Russian propaganda has tried to create the impression that wounded Ukrainian soldiers have been left to fend for themselves. In particular, the Russians launched a fake that a Ukrainian woman went to Poland in search of a new relationship after her husband was wounded at the front.

Russian propaganda earlier faked a Human Rights Watch video.

Andriy Olenin