At the beginning of February, a photocollage with a Ukrainian boy carrying portraits of 8 different fallen soldiers appeared in Polish social media. This is accompanied by communicative suggestivethat Ukraine uses children for propaganda, and mocking The proposition that the boy supposedly holds pictures of “fathers”. Both theses are direct borrowing from Russian misinformation and are not true. The boy actually honors the fallen soldiers, and Ukrainian media did not propose that he was related to them.
False
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Source: X/krulibidame and Facebook/artur.shubiakRuslan of Otynia
A post with a image of Ukrainian boy appeared, among others, on X portalwhere it received over 130 1000 views, and Facebook. Russian accounts used photos of a kid to spread false narratives already last year. Polish accounts Common from providing anti-Ukrainian content they borrowed this misinformation in January 2026. Meanwhile, Ukrainian Press, while publishing pictures of Ruslan, she did not propose that the boy carries portraits of his relatives.
How informs Ukrainian portal KURS, a kid visible on photocollapse is 14-year-old Ruslan of Otynia in the IvanoFrankiv region. The boy, on his own initiative, since the summertime of 2024, bears portraits of fallen Ukrainian soldiers during farewell ceremonies, thus honoring their memory. PPresident of the Youth agrarian Council of Otynia Maxim Sarachman confirmed
that Ruslan ‘fromAnd he volunteered to see it as an honor and a duty.It’s okay. ”
How adds Ukrainian Centre for Combating Disinformation, cThe elem of specified actions is discrediting Ukraine and sowing doubts about the real war crimes committed by Russians through insinuations that war is simply a fabrication of Ukrainian propaganda.
Summary
The 14-year-old Ruslan of Otynia voluntarily pays tribute to fallen Ukrainian soldiers with whom he is not related. Russian disinformation centres changed the context of photography in specified a way that it presented Ukraine in a negative light. This is frequently utilized tactics by Cremaceous propaganda.
Sources
Kl. informat: https://kl.inforator.ua/uk/v-otiniji-zustrili-skorbotniy-kortezh-z-tilom-geroya-vasilya-selepiya
Course: рф поширює про “постановочність війни”, використовуючи фото підлітка з Отинії
Centre for Combating Disinformation
