At the end of May 2023, a photograph was circulated on the Internet that supposedly showed a Ukrainian postal company van carrying some kind of combat vehicle. We have verified the authenticity of the photo.
The photo shows a red truck with the inscription “Nova Poshta” (“New Post”), inside the trailer of which there is some kind of tracked vehicle. Commenting on the photo, the authors of numerous publications accuse the Armed Forces of Ukraine that, by using disguises as civilian vehicles, the Ukrainian military is violating conventionregulating participation in military conflicts. Also the owners of some Russian channels are indignant why the head office of the Ukrainian company and the parking of its trucks have not yet become a “legitimate target” for the Russian army.
The photo began to circulate en masse on May 20, 2023; it was posted, in particular, by pro-Russian Telegram channels Tynu40k Goblina (oper.ru) (377,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), “Putin on Telegram"(218,000), "Prigozhin on Telegram"(83,000), "Armed Forces of the Russian Federation"(57,000), TarikNezalejko (55,000), "Markov logic"(46,000), "I'm shocked"(36,000), "New 🅉 Ukraine Live" (12,000), "Public news service" (8000) and "Actually in Dnieper"(8000). In addition, a photo of a postal truck can be found in public pages on VKontakte (examples here, here And here), on Twitter (here, here And here), "Zene", as well as on news resources and media sites, including “New news"
The viral photo lacks any notable details, making it difficult to determine the location of the shooting. However, it is known for sure that the picture was taken several years ago - according to the results of a reverse image search through the TinEye service, it appeared on the Internet back in 2015. Moreover, initially in the photograph the truck looked different: its trailer was painted blue, and instead of the name of the Ukrainian postal service, the logo of another company was placed on the body. In addition, the viral image obscures the license plate number that is visible in the original - according to the inscription on the sign, the car registered in Belarus.
The earliest entry with a real photo “Verified” was found on the entertainment site “Pikabu”, where a user under the nickname ZOPA1399 published him on July 19, 2015. Based on the fact that the post is marked “my” (this icon is usually used to mark copyrighted content on the platform), we believe that there is a high probability that this publication is the original source of the photo. Moreover, in those images where no watermark site pikabu.ru (located in the lower right corner), traces of its removal are visible.
Judging by the external details, in the body is MT-LBu (Multi-purpose lightly armored universal transporter) is a floating tracked chassis with a universal hull, developed in the USSR in the 1960s.
This method of transporting MT-LBu cannot be called unique: on the Internet posted many pictures, which show exactly the same transportation of similar equipment, and on trucks with Belarusian license plates. “Verified” even found a photo of the same car from the viral image, but from a different angle - it was posted on VKontakte on July 23, 2015.
As for the fake photo, it appeared quite recently. In the morning May 18, 2023 press service of “Nova Poshta” reported about a technical glitch in the mobile application, due to which clients could not use some services. The next morning, the pro-Kremlin online publication Readovka stated, that technical problems occurred due to the fault of Russian hackers, and Nova Poshta allegedly kept silent about the hack. “As a result of the cyber attack, hundreds of servers that ensured the functionality of mail, including the database, were destroyed. By the way, it was through Nova Poshta that British Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and German Leopard tanks were supplied. Now the logistics of the Ukrainian army have been disrupted even more, and the resulting bases will make it possible to identify specific individuals supplying military equipment to the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces,” the publication says in the Telegram channel. No hard evidence other than screenshot in low resolution, Readovka did not provide. At the same time, Nova Poshta announced about fixing the problem and fully resuming work later four minutes after the post of the Russian publication and deniedthat the failure occurred due to a phishing attack.
According to Ukrainian media, Ukrainians ridiculed publication of Readovka, calling it “nonsense” and creating many memes based on it. At the same time, one of the humorous flash mobs on Facebook started Nova Poshta itself, calling the publication about a cyber attack and the delivery of tanks “someone’s fantasies.” And in the TikTok account Nova Post Polska (“New Post Poland”) posted a humorous video about how to pack a tank.
Early in the morning of May 20, a fake photo of a mail truck was posted on Facebook. posted Member of the Presidium of the Council of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine Alexander Sokolovsky. Judging by the signature “Nenuacho...))” and Sokolovsky’s humorous comments, this was clearly a humorous publication. For hours it's a joke got infected in Ukrainian Telegram channels, and even on Twitter appeared the second version of the meme, on which the Nova Poshta logo is photoshopped a little differently. By the way, this picture was also passed off as a real photo - for example, in the Russian Telegram channel “Alexander Semchenko"(105,000 views).
It is worth noting that reports about the transportation of Western military equipment by Novaya Poshta, in particular British Spartan armored personnel carriers, appeared in the Russian media at the end of February 2023. Then the authors of the notes referred to the video, published the pro-Kremlin Telegram channel “Military Informant,” which, in turn, mentioned unnamed Ukrainian sources. The footage showed two trucks with military equipment, and one truck had Polish registration numbers and a sticker with the “Nova Poshta” logo sloppily attached. Two inscriptions are superimposed on top of the video: #StandWithUkraine (#SupportUkraine) and And another load gone today (“And another batch left today”).
At the beginning of March 2023, the Sergei Pritula Charitable Foundation announcedthat the first batch of 24 units of tracked military equipment was delivered to Ukraine (volunteers in total purchased donated 101 armored vehicles of eight different models, including Spartan). At the same time, the fund thanked the Nova Poshta company, which acted as a logistics partner and delivered the armored personnel carrier to Ukraine free of charge. “Paying for the equipment is only part of the story. Then the quest for delivery and paperwork began. The armored cars moved more than 2000 km along the route Great Britain - France - Germany - Poland - Ukraine. To transport equipment, they used trucks, two units per truck or trawl. The Nova Poshta company covered logistics costs and transferred UAH 6 million for this. We saw videos of the transportation of our armored cars in open sources with confident comments that this was international aid from governments,” told Director of the fund Anna Gvozdyar. It was not specified whether the equipment was delivered on branded trucks, usually used for civilian transport.
Thus, in May 2023, the authors of pro-Russian resources took the memes of Ukrainian Internet users seriously. The original photo, which was published almost eight years ago, did not show a truck from the Ukrainian postal company, but a truck with Belarusian license plates and a different logo. Although Ukrainian volunteers reported that Nova Poshta paid for the delivery of military equipment from abroad, the photo that went viral three months later cannot serve as confirmation that the armored personnel carriers were transported under the guise of civilian cargo.
Cover photo: social networks
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