Is it true that in Lviv graduates put on ribbons with a map of Ukraine without Crimea?

In early June 2024, a photograph allegedly taken on the recent “last call” in the largest city of Western Ukraine spread through the social networks. We checked the authenticity of this picture.

According to publications in the media and Telegram channels, in one of the Lviv schools, eleventh graders were given traditional tapes on which the Ukrainian map was depicted without the Crimean peninsula. In evidence, a photograph allegedly taken on the line in front of the building of the educational institution was given. Pro-Russian bloggers accompanied this picture with comments like the “stage of acceptance” and “finally came an awareness of a new reality.”

The news was distributed by the Russian media ("Arguments and facts","Crimea news tape","Podolyaka") And numerous Russian-speaking Telegram channels, including"Operation Z: Warrixes of Russian Spring"(478,000 views at the time of writing this analysis),"Ne. Sahar"(221 000),"Truthfulness"(186 000),"Uncle Glory"(170 000) and"Ukraine.ru"(136 000).

Source: TGSTAT screenshot

Despite the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, the Ukrainian authorities consistently consider the peninsula to part of their sovereign territory (in this with them Solidarity The vast majority of the countries of the world). Both officials and many residents of Ukraine acutely react to statements in support of the opposite point of view. For example, in 2017, authorities Forbidden Broadcasting in the country of the Russian independent television channel "Rain", on the air of which they showed a map with Crimea as part of the Russian Federation. Arose such Scandals and in the future, and in 2021 in the Verkhovna Rada it was even discussed law On the introduction of fines for such images. “We cannot imagine Ukraine without Crimea. And while the Crimea remains occupied by Russia, this means one thing: the war is not over yet, ” - declared President of the country Vladimir Zelensky in 2023.

In these conditions, it is logical that the alleged embarrassment at the “last call” in Lviv could not bypass the local media and the Ukrainian -language segment of social networks. However, “verified” did not find traces of any serious discussion of such an incident in the Ukrainian media sex.

The search for tapes similar to depicted in a viral picture led to the FestShop.com.ua online store. On his page in Instagram There are almost identical templates.

Source: Instagram screenshot

“Verified” contacted the representative of festshop.com.ua, and he confirmed that the ribbons from the viral photo are very similar to their own, but with a significant difference - in all similar images, Ukraine is depicted within international recognized boundaries. He also said that the ribbons are ordered individually by students or their parents, so the assertion is that “the graduates distributed tapes” is already incorrectly. 

According to the store employee, to determine the city whose residents ordered such tapes to them, you can try by the location of the heart on the map of Ukraine - often at the request of parents or graduates they are placed in the same place where the settlement itself is located. From this we can conclude that we are not talking about Lviv, which is located almost at the western border of the country. Much more likely candidates - for example, east of Ternopol or Khmelnitsky.

Left - a fragment of a viral photo, on the right - Google Maps screenshot

Having conducted an internal investigation at the request of the “verified”, the representative of Festshop.com.ua found out that the order for the tape with this is the location of the heart and it was for the 11th “a” class that he came from Ternopol. And even brought a template.

Source: festshop.com.ua

“Verified” studied the publications about “recent calls” in local media. In the published on May 31, 2024 Report The publications “20 Hwilin” about the holiday lines in various educational institutions of the city presented such a picture taken at a celebration at school No. 19.

Source: TE.20Minut.ua

These are the same graduates as in a viral photo, only taken by a slightly more general plan. On the ribbons that eleventh graders put on, the map of Ukraine corresponds to internationally recognized boundaries.

In the Telegram channel of the same publication "20 Hwilin»Other pictures taken on that day at school No. 19 are presented. One of them coincides with the fact that they distributed pro -Kremlin resources. The only difference is that in the original frame the Crimea is depicted as part of Ukraine.

Source: TGSTAT screenshot

Thus, a viral photo is the result of processing in the graphic editor of the frame, published in the Telegram channel of the Ternopil media.

According to the TGSTAT service, the first picture was posted by the Telegram channel "Bear»June 1 at 11:25 pm Moscow time. This resource is repeatedly mentioned V parsing "Retrieved" as a disinformation distributor about Ukraine.

Photo on the cover: social networks

Read on the topic:

If you find a spelling or grammatical error, please inform us of this, highlighting the text with an error and by pressing Ctrl+Enter.

Share with your friends

A message about the typo

Our editors will receive the following text: