In July 2024, a screenshot of a petition appeared on the Internet to name the Ukrainian Armed Forces brigade, into which the Azov regiment was transformed, after the recently murdered ex-Verkhovna Rada deputy. We have verified the accuracy of this news.

It is alleged that the petition to name the 3rd assault brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces named after Irina Farion was published on the website of the President of Ukraine on July 20, 2024, the day after assassination attempts to a philologist and ex-deputy of the Ukrainian parliament. Posts with the corresponding screenshot appeared in Telegram channels “Uncle Slava"(188,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Ukraine.ru"(114,000), "Cat Kostyan"(90,000), "Oleg Tsarev" (85,000) and "Release the Kraken!"(75,000). The initiative to name a Ukrainian military unit after Farion was written “Gazeta.ru" And Lenta.ru, as well as users "VKontakte", "Zen" And LiveJournal.

On July 19, 2024, a crime was committed against the former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Irina Farion assassination attempt: a man shot at a politician when she came out of the entrance of her house in Lviv. Farion was hospitalized in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head and, despite the efforts of doctors, died later that day. July 25, President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky reportedthat the police detained a suspect - an 18-year-old resident of Dnieper. Soon it became known and his name is Vyacheslav Zinchenko.

Deputy Head of the National Police of Ukraine Andrey Nibitov, who personally communicated with the detainee, described him as an “absolutely pro-Ukrainian” person who “believes that there is no need to divide Ukrainian society.” Speaking about the results of the investigation, Interior Minister Igor Klimenko noted that three main motives were being considered: “a possible Russian trace, [Farion’s] social activities and personal enmity.” “We are studying the suspect’s connections both in Ukraine and abroad. And one of the versions is the involvement of the services of the aggressor country in the organization of this crime,” spoke Deputy Director of the Security Service of Ukraine Sergei Andrushchenko.

The scene of the assassination attempt on Farion. Source: "Country politics»

A few days after Farion’s death and shortly before Zinchenko’s arrest, in a Telegram channel associated with the neo-Nazi group National-Socialism / White Power (NS/WP), was published “manifesto” of the person who took responsibility for the assassination attempt. The post calls him an autonomous ally of the organization, and Farion is described in the “manifesto” as a “saboteur and race traitor.” The SBU considers NS/WP a Russian group, while in the Russian Federation it is still in 2021 announced terrorist, and in 2022 accused in the preparation of an assassination attempt on TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov by order of the Ukrainian special services.

In the same post it was published a video that allegedly captured the moment of Farion's murder. Media compared This video contains footage from the scene and found matching vehicles.

At the same time, the author of the video declared his support for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. “I can’t help but talk about the military separately. First of all, I want to thank all the soldiers for the defense of Ukraine. I’m not going to bother you, but, on the contrary, I’m trying for your good. While you are fighting the external enemy, I am fighting the internal one,” the video says.

Farion, who was a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada in 2012–2014, and also for almost 30 years taught at the Ukrainian language department at the Lviv Polytechnic, known for its radical nationalist statements. In November 2023, the philologist criticized the Ukrainian military, in particular those serving in the 3rd assault brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (until January 2023 - Regiment "Azov"), for the use of the Russian language. “I cannot call them Ukrainians if they do not speak Ukrainian. Let them call themselves Russians. Why are they so crazy? — stated Farion in an interview with the Ukrainian Channel Five. In her Telegram channel she added, that such “moscow bulls disgrace the Armed Forces of Ukraine.” After these statements, the SBU started an investigation against Farion under four articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, and Lviv Polytechnic dismissed her from her position as a professor.

Ex-commander of Azov, and now deputy commander of the 3rd assault brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Maxim Zhorin replied to the philologist’s accusations: “Attention! First post in Russian in this channel! Especially for Irina Farion. Nobody gave you the right to open your mouth towards the Azov fighters, the 3rd Assault, or any other unit of the Ukrainian army. So just go fuck yourself!” The Ukrainian military officer added: “It’s high time for law enforcement agencies to pay attention to the activities of this complete p***, who is splitting Ukrainian society according to FSB guidelines.” On the day of Farion’s death, the commander of the 3rd assault brigade and former Azov soldier Dmitry Kukharchuk wrote on Telegram: “People like her, who use the national idea in their own interests without a shadow of sadness, do not even deserve to remember their names, not to mention sympathy. There can be no compassion for the enemy. The enemy has destroyed and continues to destroy entire generations of Ukrainians, and she is an unconditional component of enemy propaganda.”

Due to the public conflict between the soldiers of the 3rd Assault Brigade and Farion, the proposal to name the unit after her seems absurd. The authors of Telegram channels, which nevertheless talked about the petition, accompanied the news with comments like “I couldn’t think of a greater humiliation” and “This is the same as if a detachment of Lenin’s bodyguards asked to give him a name Fanny Kaplan"

In posts with a screenshot on Telegram there is no link to the petition itself on website President of Ukraine. We checked the number 22/264840-ep shown in the viral image with the register of published petitions - we could not find such a petition. In addition, at the time of writing this analysis, the last appeal on the website of the President of Ukraine was registered under the number 22/231324-ep, which is much smaller than the number of the petition to name the 3rd assault brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces the name Farion. A search on the corresponding section of the site for the names of the murdered philologist and the alleged author of the appeal, Oleg Zhurban, also did not yield any results.

The earliest post with a screenshot that “Verified” was able to find appeared in the pro-Russian Telegram channel “Cat Kostyan"at 10:36 Moscow time on July 20, 2024, that is, the day after Farion was killed. This is not the first time that pro-Kremlin channels have spread information about non-existent petitions created on the website of the Ukrainian president. So, at the end of June 2024 there is supposedly appeared proposal to rename Anna Akhmatova Street in Kyiv in honor of the driver who shot down nine people in Blagoveshchensk. News about this petition refuted fact checkers from the Ukrainian project “Gvara Media”. And the authors of “Verified” more than once debunked fakes, distributed "Bone the Cat."

Thus, the petition to name the 3rd Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces after Irina Farion does not exist. Apparently, the authors of the fake created a screenshot of a page from the electronic petitions website in a graphic editor.

Cover photo: social networks