In January 2024, two stories about the murder of Ukrainian military commissars were spread in the Russian media and social networks: one of them was allegedly shot dead while on duty, and the second was stabbed to death after work. We have checked the evidence presented in this regard.
Video from an unnamed Ukrainian city
On January 15, a two-second recording of the alleged murder of an employee of a territorial acquisition center (TCC) began to circulate on the RuNet. Numerous Russian Media And Telegram channels They report that the video was published by the National Police of Ukraine (NPU).
Newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda”describes what is happening in the video: "Staircase. A representative of the military registration and enlistment office rings the doorbell, it opens slightly, and a hand with a pistol presses against his chest. Everything is filmed by a video camera on the landing, which records what is happening without sound. The TCC employee does not have time to say a word or get a summons. A pistol to the chest at point-blank range, and the employee who wanted to enter the door falls backward like a bag; the second TCC employee, who accompanied him, catches him and runs away from the camera’s field of view. The police posted this recording on the Internet, saying that a TCC employee was killed as a result of this shot ... "
Similar notes appeared in the newspapers "Moskovsky Komsomolets" And "Arguments and facts» (twice), on the sites "Public News Service", "National television" and to "Peekaboo" The viral video was posted by Telegram channels “Pozdnyakov 3.0"(274,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Two majors"(225,000), "Observer"(210,000), "Ukraine.ru"(145,000), "First People's"(134,000), "Z-News | Army 🅉 18+"(112,000), "Alexander Semchenko" (93,000), "Cartridge"(58,000 at the time of deletion), "Denazification of Ukraine"(56,000), "Infach"(47,000), "Dill fresh"(40,000) and Voblya 18+ (24,000), as well as public pages on VKontakte (examples here, here And here).
None of the publications mentioned above report the location and/or time of filming, nor provide links to NPU publications. It is also not possible to determine the location or names of the characters based on the quality and duration of the video. “Checked, could not find a similar video on resources National Police. On the contrary, on January 16 on its website and in social networks The Ukrainian agency published a refutation, calling the viral recording a fake. At the same time, the press service of the National Police drew attention to details indicating that the video was fabricated:
- the characteristic features inherent in a shot from a firearm are not reflected;
- the inscriptions on the vest of the person captured are illegible, probably written in foreign letters, and employees of the TsK SP (and social support - editor's note) wear camouflage clothing and without reflective vests while on duty;
- the watermark on the video is a fake of the NPU watermark and does not correspond to the one with which official videos are marked.
In addition, the police did not receive any reports of the murder or injury of an employee of the TCC SP.
“Verified” confirms the third argument of the NPU about the inconsistency of the logos. We compared the watermark from the viral video (more precisely, a fragment of it, since the recording was cropped) with those on the official materials of the National Police. It turned out that the sign on the disseminated recording differs from those with which the NPU press service usually marks its photographs and videos: both the position of the letters relative to the emblem and the proportions of the elements differ. In other analyzes, “Verified” has repeatedly indicated that the authors of fakes often make mistakes when copying symbols, including similar logos.
It is difficult to unambiguously determine the original source from which the distribution of the video began due to the variety of captions for the video. However, the earliest publication among those that “Verified” was able to track appeared January 15 at 13:34 Moscow time in the small Telegram channel “Southern Front”. However, the post received almost 139,000 views thanks to repost channel Reverse Side Of The Medal.
Thus, the National Police of Ukraine states that it has nothing to do with the viral video. According to representatives of the department, this recording is a fake, which is confirmed by indirect details and an incorrect watermark. And although we cannot 100% confirm that the video does not depict a real murder of a military registration and enlistment office employee, it can be said with a high degree of probability that it is a fake.
Photos from Kharkov region
On January 22, reports appeared about a new murder of a military registration and enlistment office employee, this time allegedly near Kharkov. Russian media and bloggers claimthat the police suspect the father of a “forcibly mobilized” Ukrainian of committing a crime. Allegedly, according to investigators, murder was revenge for sending his son to the front. Most publications provide a photo of the body; the photo contains the logo of the press service of the Kharkov prosecutor’s office.
This is how the story was presented in the Telegram channel of the publication “Ukraine.ru"(131,000 views): “Yesterday (January 21 - Ed.) it became known that the Kharkov prosecutor’s office detained a 70-year-old resident of the village of Dubovka, who killed one of the TCC (military registration and enlistment office) employees involved in the forcible detention of his son and sending him to the front without a medical check. Local residents say that the mobilized son of the detainee suffers from asthma and cannot be drafted into the Ukrainian Armed Forces. However, local military commissars, in front of his father’s eyes, tied him up, took him to the military registration and enlistment office, gave him a uniform and sent him to Kupyansk without a medical examination or taking combat training courses. In the heat of the moment, the avenger tracked down one of the TTS officers, stabbed him in the neck several times with a kitchen knife and took the body to the railway tracks, trying to make it look like suicide. Now the grandfather is in custody without the right to bail. This is what Zelensky has brought the population of his country to: people are ready to kill military commissars, just so as not to go to the front and die for the interests of the Kyiv regime..."
Other channels posted similar entries, including “The world today with "Yuri Podolyak""(1.6 million views), "Ne.Sugar"(267,000), "Sheikh Tamir"(139,000), "Bullet"(117,000), "Alexander Semchenko"(81,000), "Myslyvets Lite"(79,000), lpr 1 (76,000), "Special Operation Z" (68,000), "Prigozhin 2023"(64,000), "Zaporozhye Front"(56,000), "On the Front Line"(49,000), "Angry journalist"(49,000), "Semyon Pegov | War Gonzo" (45,000), "Boiling water"(41,000), "New 🅉 Ukraine"(36,000), "Look for crests 18+" (35,000), "Batkovich" (30,000) and "Objective Evgen"(28,000). Notes about the murder of the military commissar appeared on newspaper websites "Moskovsky Komsomolets" And "Arguments and facts» (twice), "Public News Service"and also News.ru, "Federal Press", "Donpress", "Main regional", "Military Review" And "Reporter" In addition, the story became popular in public pages on VKontakte (examples here, here And here).
To begin with, “Verified” tried to find the original source of the news about the murder of a TCC employee in the village of Dubovka. The earliest publication that we were able to track appeared on January 22 at 17:18 Moscow time in the pro-Russian Telegram channel “Dill fresh"(37,000 views), where the video discussed above was also posted. Besides, authors many posts And notes V Media referred specifically to this blog. Previously, “Ukropsky Fresh” has repeatedly mentioned in our analyzes, as well as in refutations of others fact checkers.
Using a reverse search on a viral image, “Verified” determined that the photo was genuine - it was actually his published press service of the Kharkov regional prosecutor's office. However, according to the department, the circumstances of the death of the man whose body is captured in the photograph differ from those circulated by pro-Russian media. Firstly, there are reports on the resources of Ukrainian government agencies about the murder and detention of a suspect appeared January 19th, not the 21st. Secondly, there is no mention in the official reports that the victim worked at the TCC, and the alleged killer was taking revenge for his mobilized son.
According to the Ukrainian prosecutor's office, the body of a 57-year-old man with signs of violent death was found on January 18 in the Kharkov region on the railway tracks. It is reported that the murder was committed by a 70-year-old acquaintance of the victim. By versions investigation, on the evening of January 17, the men were drinking alcoholic beverages in a private house in the village of Dubovka. A domestic conflict arose between the friends, during which one of them grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed the victim several times in the neck, as a result of which the victim died on the spot. Then the suspect decided to disguise the crime as a suicide: he took the corpse to the railway station on a sled and threw it onto the track so that the body would be run over by a train.
January 19 about this story also reported police resources of the Kharkov region, where they also indicated that a man stabbed his drinking companion to death during a quarrel. Two additional photographs were also provided: one from the scene of the incident, the other of the detainee at the police station. Ukrainian Media at lighting crimes also didn't mention neither the place of work of the deceased, nor the presence of the suspect’s mobilized asthmatic son.
Thus, Kharkov law enforcement agencies did not report the detention of a 70-year-old man who carried out reprisals against a TCC employee responsible for the forcible conscription of his son without a medical examination. According to the police and prosecutors, the murder occurred during a domestic conflict between two comrades who were drinking alcohol.
Cover photo: collage “Verified” / social networks / Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office
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