In August 2023, the Network circulated a photo of a document allegedly signed by the head of one of the Ukrainian units. It was alleged that the dead military personnel would be burned in mobile crematoria. We have verified the authenticity of this paper.
As information resources reported, a photo of an order allegedly given by the commander of the 123rd Territorial Defense Brigade of Ukraine was leaked onto the Internet. According to this document, due to logistical problems, high personnel losses and overcrowding of morgues, deputy commanders were ordered to organize the work of mobile crematoria. Battalion commanders had to hold explanatory conversations with military personnel about the need for their cremation in the event of death and obtain appropriate written consent.
This order was written about “Komsomolskaya Pravda", "Russian newspaper" And "Arguments and facts"and also Newsland And ZMaps. The news spread widely in "VKontakte", a screenshot of the order was published by Telegram channels "Militarist"(493,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Solovyov" (393,000), "Dmitry Vasilets"(215,000), "Ostashko! Important" (123,000) and "Ukraine.ru"(92,000).
The topic of overcrowded morgues, lack of space in cemeteries and the use of mobile crematoriums regularly comes up in news about the war in Ukraine. One of the reasons is the lack of open official data on both sides’ own losses, which allows propaganda to throw in information that supposedly indirectly confirms the fact that the enemy underestimated these figures. So, at the beginning of March 2022, the Network bypassed a video where it was said that the Russian army on the territory of Ukraine is using mobile crematoria to destroy traces of casualties among military personnel. How soon it turned out, the video was filmed back in 2013 by the development company itself, it depicts the burning of garbage; Previously, the video had already been used as evidence of the burning of bodies of military personnel in Donbass (2014), sanctioned products (2015) and victims of vaccination against COVID-19 (2021). On the other hand, our colleagues from Vox Ukraine analyzed the manipulative news that at the cemetery in Kharkov ran out of burial space, about the creation in Kyiv military cemetery for 100,000 - 200,000 places, as well as relatives' demands military from the Azov brigade to increase the number of cemeteries in Ukraine.
Publications about the order of the commander of the 123rd brigade used as indirect confirmation of the news that circulated in the Russian media in February 2023 information about 200 mobile crematoriums for pets transferred by the German authorities - the Ukrainian authorities allegedly intended to use them for other purposes. However, this information is not found in either German or Ukrainian authoritative sources and, apparently, became a figment of the imagination of the propaganda media.
Let's turn directly to the document, a photograph of which has spread across the Internet. You can notice that its text appears in two different languages: English and Ukrainian.
However, the use of English in official documentation in the Ukrainian army looks strange, and upon closer inspection it turns out that this is simply the result of the use of "Yandex Translator» with text recognition on images.
The military unit A7052 mentioned in the header of the order is indeed corresponds 123rd separate territorial defense brigade. However, the code indicated on the seal is 07849800 in the Unified State Register of Enterprises and Organizations of Ukraine absent. Real brigade code - 26623365.
The commander of the 123rd brigade, open sources indeed called Roman Tokarenko, whose name is listed under the order. At the same time, our colleagues from StopFake published a photo of another document, on which the colonel’s signature looks completely different.
A spelling error deserves special attention: the word “srokom” is written in Russian (in Ukrainian Right - “string”).
Finally, the information disseminated refuted on the 123rd Brigade's Facebook page, calling it "another Russian information and psychological operation."
The circulation of the news on the Internet began on the morning of August 18 from the pro-Russian Telegram channel “Kherson Bulletin" He's already Not once was seen in dissemination non-existent orders from the commander of the 123rd brigade participating in the fighting in southern Ukraine. This fact and the above-mentioned arguments allow us to say that this time we are dealing with a fake.
Cover photo: social networks
Read on topic:
- Is it true that in German crematoriums, due to gas shortages, five bodies are cremated at a time?
- Is it true that the mobile operator Kyivstar accidentally admitted: the losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces amount to 400,000 people?
- Is it true that the Vikings buried their dead in floating boats that were set on fire?
If you find a spelling or grammatical error, please let us know by highlighting the error text and clicking Ctrl+Enter.
