In January 2024, a video circulated on social networks in which a man was allegedly outraged by the design of price tags in a Ukrainian store: the price there was indicated not only in hryvnias, but also in rubles. We have verified the authenticity of this entry.
In the second half of January, a nine-second video went viral on RuNet, which was reportedly filmed in Kherson. In the recording, a man can be heard addressing the ATB chain of stores in Ukrainian in obscene language: according to him, he does not understand why the price tags indicate the cost of goods in rubles. At the same time, the close-up footage shows prices in hryvnias and rubles for tomatoes and cucumbers, allegedly purchased in a Ukrainian supermarket. In many publications approved, that this is how “Ukrainians are preparing for changes,” and ruble prices are needed “to make it more convenient to count.” “Apparently, awareness and understanding comes very quickly for everyone. In addition to the main ancient ukra,” reads one of the most popular video captions.
This video was posted by the authors of large Telegram channels, including “Three heroes and Zelensky drug addict"(187,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Sheikh Tamir" (146,000) and "Kot Kostyan - official channel"(96,000), and many smaller channels: "Mikhail Onufrienko" (27,000), "Kryminforum 🇿 🇴 🇻"(16,000), "Nevoenkor Kurlaeva" (14,000), "For real" (14,000), "Actually in Dnieper"(11,000), Zanoza (10,000), "Bear" (8000), "Actually in Kherson" (7000) and "Kherson.ru"(7000). Public pages on VKontakte have also been written about Kherson price tags in rubles (examples here, here, here And here) and some news sites.
On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of the territory of Ukraine, and by March 3, Russian troops installed control over Kherson. On September 30, following the results of the “referendum”, the results of which the UN General Assembly didn't recognize overwhelming majority of votes, Russia formally annexed the Kherson region along with its administrative center. However, already on November 11, the Ukrainian Armed Forces during the counter-offensive returned control over the city. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov at the same time statedthat for the Kremlin, the departure of Russian troops from Kherson will not change the status of the Kherson region in any way.
In the viral recording, price tags for first-grade cucumbers (73.64 UAH, or 173 rubles per kg) and greenhouse tomatoes (96.63 UAH, or 227 rubles per kg) stuck on bags were captured in the frame. It is indicated that the vegetables were packaged on January 19, 2024.
Ukrainian fact checkers from the publications “Ukrinform" And "Gvara Media" They notethat ATB supermarkets do not use similar price stickers for vegetables and fruits: products from these categories are weighed for customers at the checkout. Such stickers, according to Gvara Media, are used in the chain of stores only for sweets by weight and bakery products of their own production. As evidence, journalists bought candy in one of the ATB supermarkets and compared the real price tag with what is shown in the video. It turned out that the original sticker uses a different design and has the ATB network logo, which is missing in the video. Also, supermarkets use the word "wrapped" instead of "packed".
In the catalog goods on the ATB website the cost per kilogram greenhouse tomatoes and greenhouse first grade cucumbers is 89.89 and 119.95 UAH, respectively. Moreover, on the network’s website these positions are indicated in the plural (in the video - in the singular), and simple (not greenhouse) first-grade cucumbers are completely absent. Note that the addition “1st grade” for cucumbers appears only when searching on Russian-speaking site versions. All prices are indicated exclusively in hryvnias.
The price tags from the video indicate that the purchase was made in Kherson in a store on Vishnevaya Street, 159. However, according to map On the ATB website, the chain's supermarket is not located at this address. In fact, there is a store on Cherry Street, but it located nearby - in house 157/71.
Finally, the ATB-Market company called the viral video a fake. Thus, head of the corporation’s communications department Sergei Demchenko stated Ukrinform publication that the information about prices in rubles is fake and this was not the case in ATB stores in Kherson. The journalist of “Gvara Media”, in turn, sent a question on the company’s social network, where they repeated most of the above arguments and denied that they publish the price in rubles: “The ATB chain of stores sells goods only in the state currency - hryvnia and does not cooperate with the aggressor country.”
The spread of this fake on the RuNet followed the traditional pattern: judging by the comments, the video was sent to various pro-Russian Telegram channels by an anonymous subscriber. Thus, the earliest such publication among those found by “Verified” appeared on January 22 at 17:01 Moscow time in the channel “Shaman Rahu"(3600 views), which previously featured in dozens of our analyses. A few seconds later, a similar post marked “From reader to bot” appeared in the channel “Newspaper "Special Forces of Russia", magazine "Razvedchik""(1700 views).
Cover photo: social networks
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