Russian propaganda spreading fakes about ‘Ukrainian woman marrying Colombian’ and ‘woman robbed by soldier’
Russian Telegram channels are circulating a screenshot of a post alleging a wedding between a Ukrainian woman and a Colombian man who is supposedly a serviceman of the 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade Magura. It is claimed that a resident of Rivne entered into a fictitious marriage with a foreigner to receive financial benefits, as, according to propagandists, Colombian volunteers are allegedly suffering heavy losses.
This is fake. The wedding did take place, and the man in the photo indeed serves in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but he is not from Colombia – he is from Spain. The outlet Rivne Media, citing a Facebook post by the relevant local civil registry office, reported the recent registration of a marriage between a woman from Rivne and a citizen of the Kingdom of Spain. Apparently, propagandists linked the fabricated story about a “Colombian groom” to the fact that volunteers from Colombia do serve in the 47th brigade.
This fake is aimed at discrediting the service of foreign volunteers in Ukraine amid the decision to integrate units of the International Legion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine into assault units of the Ground Forces.
In addition, Russian information resources spread a “news” story about a woman being robbed of $5,200 on a first date in Kyiv. According to propagandists, the crime was allegedly committed by an assault trooper from the 225th Separate Assault Regiment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who was supposedly absent without leave.
This is also fake, as the original report published on META.ua contains no information about any involvement of Ukrainian military personnel. The article states that law enforcement detained a 32-year-old Kyiv resident who has been formally suspected of theft.
The spread of this disinformation is also aimed at discrediting the Armed Forces of Ukraine and portraying military personnel as a threat to civilians.
Earlier, as reported by Ukrinform, Russian propaganda carried out a large-scale disinformation campaign against Ukrainian forces in the Sumy region.
By Andrii Olenin, Odarina Soga
