In June 2024, a photograph allegedly taken near a cafe in Berlin circulated on Telegram. The photograph showed a board with an inscription about refusal to feed Ukrainians for free. We have verified the authenticity of this image.

On June 25, 2024 appeared on Telegram photo advertising stand with the inscription in German: “Wir bedienen Ukrainer nicht kostenlos. Verdiene dir dein Mittagessen selbst!” In most posts, the captions to the photo were a translation of the phrase into Russian (“We do not serve Ukrainians for free. Earn your own lunch!”) and an explanation that such a board was noticed near a certain cafe in Berlin. Channel "RT in Russian"(214,000 views at the time of writing) claimed that this stand was photographed by their subscriber. A few hours later, other channels began circulating a one-second video showing the same stand. In total, according to the TGStat service, more than 150 channels shared the photo and video, including “Russia now"(237,000), "The world of Mikhail Onufrienko"(236,000), "Emergency / Crimea" (147,000) and "Constantinople"(60,000). The news was also spread in "VKontakte", Facebook, X, LiveJournal, "Zene", YouTube and some Media.

After the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Germany accepted more than a million refugees from this country. In Germany they are entitled to receive a number benefits, including benefits for the poor, child benefits, partial compensation for rent and health insurance, assistance in finding a job, and payment for language courses. In mid-June 2024, German politicians (both from parties, incoming into the ruling coalition, and from opposition) proposed to reduce the amount of assistance to Ukrainian refugees - it was argued that this would encourage them to look for work. The caption to the viral photo on the RT channel said: “Previously, Olaf Scholz called for the employment of migrants from Ukraine.” Probably referring to the German Chancellor's recent interview with German television, where he stated: “We must ensure that no one who can work is unemployed.” Scholz at this moment spoke in principle about government spending on various benefits, and not exclusively about assistance to Ukrainian refugees.

The viral photo, judging by the sign at the top of the photo, was taken outside the Berio cafe. Such an establishment in Berlin really exists, and, according to the information on his page on LinkedIn, active since 1951. The cafe is located in one of the central areas of the German capital, not far from the Nollendorfplatz metro station, a large interchange hub where four lines of the Berlin subway converge. And the street Maasenstrasse, where the Berio cafe is located, is a promenade with shops, bars and restaurants. At the same time, “Verified” did not find any photographs in the local media and social networks where the board with the inscription about Ukrainians would have been captured from a different angle, or at least textual evidence from eyewitnesses.

Street stand of the Berio cafe. Source: Google Maps, Alamy

In Berio's profile on Google Maps and in the photo bank Alamy There are pictures that show advertising stands for cafes, visually reminiscent of the board from the video. However, the inscriptions on them were handwritten in chalk, and in the photo and video from Telegram, the announcement on the board seemed to be printed on a computer. Thus, the letters S, B and E in different words are absolutely identical to each other, which is very difficult to achieve when writing text by hand.

Photo fragment from the Telegram channel “RT in Russian»

The Berio website has links to the establishment's social media accounts. One of the links leads to the page groups on Facebook, which is called Berio ist. Für den Erhalt unserer Berliner Kiezkultur (German: “Berio to be. For the preservation of the culture of our Berlin quarter”). This community appears to be dedicated to efforts to preserve the cafe at its current location. The group's description (as well as the establishment's website) states: “Café Berio is in danger of closing in mid-September this year, 73 years after opening. Commercial leases will not be renewed. Help save Berio and join our support group."

“Verified” contacted the administrator of this community, Michael Amerell, who publishes most of the posts in the group. He said that the photo from Telegram was fake. According to Amerell, who referred to the owner of the cafe, the viral image was based on a photograph that was taken near the Berio cafe in September 2023, but there was no text about Ukrainians on the original frame. Apparently, this ad was added later in the photo and video editor.

Indirect confirmation of the words of Amerell and the owner of the establishment are photographs published on the Berio Facebook page in June 2024. In particular, on appeared There, on June 14, a photo in the central window of the cafe shows a large TV, which is missing in the viral image and video. In another post it saysthat the screen was placed at the tables on the street that day so that guests could watch the opening match of the European Football Championship. It is possible that similar displays take place throughout the tournament, but Verified could not reliably confirm this.

For the first time, as follows from TGStat data, the fake photo appeared on June 25, 2024 at 18:19 Moscow time simultaneously in two Telegram channels: “RT in Russian" And "Mirror" To determine the exact time of publication of “Verified”, I used the @jsonson_bot bot and found that for two posts it coincided down to a second (18:19:57). At the same time "Mirror” also posted a photo with an RT watermark, and in the text stated that the author of the photo is a subscriber to this Russian state media. The earliest publication of a video with the same stand appeared two and a half hours later in the Telegram channel “Cat Kostyan", which has happened more than once caught in dissemination fake photos and videos.

This is not the first time that fake photos and videos of boards and advertising stands of various establishments have appeared on pro-Kremlin Telegram channels. So, in September 2023, shortly after Azerbaijan’s military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh, they told about a board advertising the dish “Shashlik with Karabakh smoke,” which was allegedly placed near a restaurant in the center of Kyiv. In March 2024 via Telegram broke up a video about a bar operating on Khreshchatyk, which allegedly put up a stand with the inscription “You cannot choose the president, but you can choose beer.” In both cases, the videos turned out to be fake.

Thus, we can say with a high degree of confidence that the reports about the board with the inscription refusing to serve Ukrainians for free, which was placed at the entrance of the Berlin cafe, are not true. The photos and videos presented as evidence appear to have been falsified. These findings were confirmed by the owner of the establishment.

Cover photo: social networks