In November 2023, the news about the emergence of the official religious cult of the PSA cartridge in Ukraine began to spread in social networks and the media. We decided to check if this is so.

At the end of November, many Telegram channels appeared on the fact that the Church named after the Psa Patron, the official dog, which became famous after the Russian full-scale invasion in 2022, was supposedly registered in Ukraine, when it began to be involved in the clearance of the Chernihiv region. As evidence, a video was given on which the young man, dressed by the clergyman, speaks of the creation of the Church of the Holy Ps of Pisa. Also, users shared a video where the choir performs a song about the cartridge - it was argued that they were singing psalms. This, in particular, reported such Telegram channels as "NE.SAHAR"(250,000 views at the time of writing this analysis),"Russia now"(234,000),"Uncle Glory"(216 000),"Observer👁️"(194,000) and"Putin in Telegram"(172 000). Also, notes about the church of the holy dog of the cartridge wrote "Moscow Komsomolets"And the site"Ukraine.ru"

The dog cartridge became the most famous animal of Ukraine in 2022. The service Jack-Rassel Terrier helped sappers in clearance and was able to detect hundreds of explosive objects. May 8, 2022 the dog was Awarded The medal “For a devoted service”, and its master Mikhail Ilyev is the Order of “For Courage” of the III degree.

Awarding of the PSA cartridge, May 8, 2022. Source: The President of Ukraine website

Dog Patron has become a popular character in Ukrainian culture: it was shot about it Clothelial series, "Ukrposhta" released brands with his image. Nevertheless, there is no trace of the news of the Church of his name in Ukrainian news.

The first video related to the Church of the Holy Patron is the appeal of a person in the vestments of the priest. He says: "Dear parishioners, we are glad to see you in the church of the Holy Patron." It has a plush dog head on top of which Mitra is worn.

The primary source of this video is a video in Tiktok, published by the user Bratikvu November 19, 2023. FACTECHERS from the project "Ґvara Media»It was found that the vestment of the priest is collected from two carnival costumes: PSA cartridge And St. NicholasBoth are freely sold on Ukrainian sites.

The publication also contacted the author of the video and asked him whether he registered such a church. He replied not. In addition, the “ґvar Media” clarified whether he intended to seriously create the church of the Holy Psa of Patron. The creator of the video also responded to this negatively.

As for the second video, with a choir, it is also real. But this is a joke, as in the previous case. In the original video in Tiktok (published on November 17) they sing not with a psalm, but a well -known holy song in Ukraine "Shchedrik"With another text - the words are taken from the song"Dog Patron»Karta Svitu groups recorded in 2022. It also became relatively popular - the video for this composition scored more than 4.6 million views on YouTube.

Thus, the Russian media and Telegram channels gathered together two comic videos and turned into news about the creation of the Church of the Holy Psa of Patron.

Photo on the cover: Library of Congress