Russian propaganda invents fake stories about “serious crimes” by Ukrainian military in Sumy and Chernivtsi regions

Russian propagandists on Telegram channels and Facebook are circulating a screenshot of a supposed news story from a regional media outlet in Sumy region. The publication claims that a soldier allegedly “threw a child out of a seventh-floor window.”

This is fake. The Russians fabricated the publication of The Sumy Post. In reality, the original news reports an accident in the town of Konotop in which a 13-year-old child died after falling from a window. There is no mention of any “servicemember” being involved in the incident.

Additionally, Russian propagandist media and Telegram channels are spreading another screenshot with a headline allegedly from a local outlet in Chernivtsi. The publication claims that a “servicemember” shot a pensioner because of a “language-related dispute.”

This is also fake. Neither the headline nor the text of the news on the website of the Molodyi Bukovynets newspaper contains any information about a Ukrainian servicemember being involved in the shooting. The report from the Communication Department of the National Police in Chernivtsi region, which the newspaper cites, also makes no mention of this.

In this way, Russian propaganda continues its campaign to discredit Ukrainian military. The aggressor’s goal is to turn Ukrainian citizens against the Armed Forces and to spread the false narrative that Ukrainian troops allegedly commit crimes against civilians.

In reality, such crimes are characteristic specifically of Russian servicemen returning home from the war against Ukraine. For example, last year in Orenburg a former Wagner PMC fighter killed a friend’s mother and injured a neighbor.

According to open-source information, as of February 2025, at least 750 civilians in Russia have suffered at the hands of “SVO heroes,” 378 of whom were killed.

As reported by Ukrinform, earlier Russian propaganda spread a fake about President Zelensky’s alleged “Russian passport” and property in Moscow.

Andrii Olenin